LECTURES OR TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHNTRACTATE XXXII.

CHAPTER VII. 37-39.

1.
Among the dissensions and doubtings of the Jews concerning the Lord Jesus
Christ, among other
things
which He said, by which some were confounded,
others taught: "On the last day of that feast" (for it was then
that these things were done) which is called the feast of tabernacles;
that is, the building of tents, of which feast you remember, my beloved,
that we have already discoursed, the Lord Jesus Christ calls, not by speaking
in any way soever, but by crying aloud, that whoso thirsts may come to
Him. If we thirst, let us come; and not by our feet, but by our affections;
let us come, not by removing from our place, but by loving. Although, according
to the inner man, he that loves does also move from a place. But it is
one thing to move with the body, another thing to move with the heart:
he migrates with the body who changes his place by a motion of the body;
he migrates with the heart who changes his affection by a motion of the
heart. If thou lovest one thing, and didst love another thing before, thou
art not now where thou wast.

2.
Accordingly, the Lord cries aloud to us: for, "He stood and cried
out, if any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth
on me, as the Scripture saith., out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water." We are not obliged to delay to inquire what this meant, since
the evangelist has explained it. For why the Lord said, "If any man
thirst, let him come unto me, and drink;" and, "He that believeth
on me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water;" the evangelist
has subsequently explained, saying: "But this spake He of the Spirit
which they that believe on Him should receive. For the Spirit was not yet
given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." There is therefore an
inner thirst and an inner belly, because there is an inner man. And that
inner man is indeed invisible, but the outer man is visible; but yet better
is the inner than the outer. And this which is not seen is the more loved;
for it is certain that the inner man is loved more than the outer. How
is this certain? Let every man prove it in himself. For although they who
live ill may surrender their minds to the body, yet they do wish to live,
and to live is the property of the mind only; and they who rule, manifest
themselves more than those things that are ruled. Now it is minds that
rule, bodies are ruled. Every man rejoices in pleasure, and receives pleasure
by the body: but separate the mind from it, and nothing remains in the
body to rejoice; and if there is joy of the body, it is the mind that rejoices.
If it has joy of its dwelling, ought it not to have joy of itself? And
if the mind has whereof it may have delight outside itself, does it remain
without delights within? It is quite certain that a man loves his soul
more than his body. But further, a man loves the soul even in another man
more than the body. What is it that is loved in a friend, where the love
is the purer and more sincere? What in the friend is loved--the mind, or
the body? If fidelity is loved, the mind is loved; if benevolence is loved,
the mind is the seat of benevolence: if this is what thou lovest in another,
that he too loves thee, it is the mind thou lovest, because it is not the
flesh, but the mind that loves. For therefore thou lovest, because he loves
thee: ask why he loves thee, and then see what it is thou lovest. Consequently,
it is more loved, and yet is not seen.

3. I would say something further, by which it may more clearly appear
to you, beloved, how much the mind is loved, and how it is preferred to
the body. Those wanton lovers even, who delight in beauty of bodies, and
are charmed by shapeliness of limbs, love the more when they are loved.
For when a man loves, and finds that he is regarded with hatred, he feels
more anger than liking. Why does he feel anger rather than liking? Because
the love that he bestows is not given him in return. If, therefore, even
the lovers of bodies desire to be loved in return, and this delights them
more when they are loved, what shall we say of the lovers of minds? And
if the lovers of minds are great, what shall we say of the lovers of God
who makes minds beautiful? For as the mind gives grace to the body, so
it is God that gives grace to the mind. For it is only the mind that causes
that in the body by which it is loved; when the mind has left it, it is
a corpse at which thou hast a horror; and how much soever thou mayest have
loved its beautiful limbs, thou makest haste to bury it. Hence, the ornament
of the body is the mind; the ornament of the mind is God.

4. The Lord, therefore, cries aloud to us to come and drink, if we thirst
within; and He says that when we have drunk, rivers of living water shall
flow from our belly. The belly of the inner man is the conscience of the
heart. Having drunk that water then, the conscience being purged begins
to live; and drinking in, it will have a fountain, will be itself a fountain.
What is the fountain, and what the river that flows from the belly of the
inner man? Benevolence, whereby a man will consult the interest of his
neighbor. For if he imagines that what he drinks ought to be only for his
own satisfying, there is no flowing of living water from his belly; but
if he is quick to consult for the good of his neighbor, then he becomes
not dry, because there is a flowing. We will now see what it is that they
drink who believe in the Lord; because we surely are Christians, and if
we believe, we drink. And it is every man's duty to know in himself whether
or not he drinks, and whether he lives by what he drinks; for the fountain
does not forsake us if we forsake not the fountain.

5.
The evangelist explained, as I have said, whereof the Lord had cried
out, to what kind
of drink
He had invited, what He had procured for them
that drink, saying, "But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that
believe on Him should receive: for the Spirit was not yet given, because
Jesus was not yet glorified." What spirit does He speak of, if not
the Holy Spirit? For every man has in himself a spirit of his own, of which
I spoke when I was commending to you the consideration of the mind. For
every man's mind is his own spirit: of which the Apostle Paul says, "For
what man knoweth the things of a man, but the spirit of the man which is
in himself?" And then he added, "So also the things of God knoweth
no man, but the Spirit of God."(1) None knows the things that are
ours but our own spirit. I indeed do not know what are thy thoughts, nor
dost thou know what are mine; for those things which we think within are
our own, peculiar to ourselves; and his own spirit is the witness of every
man's thoughts. "So also the things of God knoweth no man, but the
Spirit of God." We with our spirit, God with His: so, however, that
God with His Spirit knows also what goes on within us; but we are not able,
without His own Spirit, to know what takes place in God. God, however,
knows in us even what we know not in ourselves. For Peter did not know
his own weakness, when he heard from the Lord that he would deny Him thrice:
the sick man was ignorant of his own condition; the Physician knew him
to be sick. There are then certain things which God knows in us, while
we ourselves know them not. So far, however, as belongs to men, no man
knows a man as he does himself: another does not know what is going on
within him, but his own spirit knows it. But on receiving the Spirit of
God, we learn also what takes place in God: not the whole, for we have
not received the whole. We know many things from the pledge; for we have
received a pledge, and the fullness of this pledge shall be given hereafter.
Meanwhile, let the pledge console us in our pilgrimage here; because he
who has condescended to bind himself to us by a pledge, is prepared to
give us much. If such is the token, what must that be of which it is the
token?

6.
But what is meant by this which he says, "For the Spirit was not
yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified?" He is understood
to say this in a sense that is evident. For the meaning is not that the
Spirit of God, which was with God, was not in being; but was not yet in
them who had believed on Jesus. For thus the Lord jesus disposed not to
give them the Spirit of which we speak, until after His resurrection; and
this not without a cause. And perhaps if we inquire, He will favor us to
find; and if we knock, He will open for us to enter. Piety knocks, not
the hand though the hand also knocks, if it cease not from works of mercy.
What then is the cause why the Lord Jesus Christ determined not to give
the Holy Spirit until He should be glorified? which thing before we speak
of as we may be able, we must first inquire, lest that should trouble any
one, in what manner the Spirit was not yet in holy men, whilst we read
in the Gospel concerning the Lord Himself newly born, that Simeon by the
Holy Spirit recognized Him; that Anna the widow, a prophetess, also recognized
Him;(1) that John, who baptized Him, recognized Him;(2) that Zacharias,
being filled with the Holy Ghost, said many things; that Mary herself received
the Holy Ghost to conceive the Lord.(3) We have therefore many preceding
evidences of the Holy Spirit before the Lord was glorified by the resurrection
of His flesh. Nor was it another spirit that the prophets also had, who
proclaimed beforehand the coming of Christ. But still, there was to be
a certain manner of this giving, which had not at all appeared before.
For nowhere do we read before this, that men being gathered together had,
by receiving the Holy Ghost, spoken in the tongues of all nations. But
after His resurrection, when He first appeared to His disciples, He said
to them: "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." Of this giving then it
is said, "The Spirit was not given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
And He breathed upon their faces,"(4) He who with His breath enlivened
them first man, and raised him up from the clay, by which breath He gave
a soul to the limbs; signifying that He was the same who breathed upon
their faces, that they might rise out of the mire and renounce their miry
works. Then, after His resurrection, which the evangelist calls His glorifying,
did the Lord first give the Holy Ghost to His disciples. Then having tarried
with them forty days, as the book of the Acts of the Apostles shows, while
they were seeing Him and companying with Him, He ascended into heaven in
their sight. There at the end of ten days, on the flay of Pentecost, He
sent the Holy Ghost from above. Which having received, they, who had been
gathered together in one place, as I have said, being filled withal, spoke
in the tongues of all nations.

7. How then, brethren, because he that is baptized in Christ, and believes
on Him, does not speak now in the tongues of all nations, are we not to
believe that he has received the Holy Ghost? God forbid that our heart
should be tempted by this faithlessness. Certain we are that every man
receives: but only as much as the vessel of faith that he shall bring to
the fountain can contain, so much does He fill of it. Since, therefore,
the Holy Ghost is even now received by men, some one may say, Why is it
that no man speaks in the tongues of all nations? Because the Church itself
now speaks in the tongues of all nations. Before, the Church was in one
nation, where it spoke in the tongues of all. By speaking then in the tongues
of all, it signified what was to come to pass; that by growing among the
nations, it would speak in the tongues of all. Whoso is not in this Church,
does not now receive the Holy Ghost. For, being cut off and divided from
the unity of the members, which unity speaks in the tongues of all, let
him declare for himself; he has it not. For if he has it, let him give
the sign which was given then. What do we mean by saying, Let him give
the sign which was then given? Let him speak in all tongues. He answers
me: How then, dost thou speak in all tongues? Clearly I do; for every tongue
is mine, namely, of the body of which I am a member. The Church, spread
among the nations, speaks in all tongues; the Church is the body of Christ,
in this body thou art a member: therefore, since thou art a member of that
body which speaks with all tongues, believe that thou too speakest with
all tongues. For the unity of the members is of one mind by charity; and
that unity speaks as one man then spoke.

8.
Consequently, we too receive the Holy Ghost if we love the Church, if
we are joined together
by charity,
if we rejoice in the Catholic name
and faith. Let us believe, brethren; as much as every man loves the Church
of Christ, so much has he the Holy Ghost. For the Spirit is given, as the
apostle saith, "to manifestation." To what manifestation? Just
as the same apostle saith, "For to one is given by the Spirit the
word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge after the same Spirit,
to another faith in the same Spirit, to another the gift of healing in
one Spirit, to another the working of miracles in the same Spirit."(5)
For there are many gifts given to manifestation, but thou, it may be, hast
nothing of all those I have said. If thou lovest, it is not nothing that
thou hast: if thou lovest unity, whoever has aught in that unity has it
also for thee. Take away envy, and what I have is thine too. The envious
temper puts men apart, soundness of mind unites them. In the body, the
eye alone sees; but is it for itself alone that the eye sees? It sees both
for the hand and the foot, and for all the other members. If a blow be
coming against the foot, the eye does not turn away from it, so as not
to take precaution. Again, in the body, the hand alone works, but is it
for itself alone the hand works? For the eye also it works: for if a coming
blow comes, not against the hand, but only against the face, does the hand
say, I will not move, because it is not coming to me? So the foot by walking
serves all the members: all the other members are silent, and the tongue
speaks for all. We have therefore the Holy Spirit if we love the Church;
but we love the Church if we stand firm in its union and charity. For the
apostle himself, after he had said that diverse gifts were bestowed on
diverse men, just as the offices of the several members, saith, "Yet
I show you a still more pre-eminent way;" and begins to speak of charity.
This he put before tongues of men and angels, before miracles of faith,
before knowledge and prophecy, before even that great work of mercy by
which a man distributes to the poor all that he possesses; and, lastly,
put it before even the martyrdom of the body: before all these so great
things he put charity. Have it, and thou shalt have all: for without it,
whatever thou canst have will profit nothing. But that thou mayest know
that the charity of which we are speaking refers to the Holy Spirit (for
the question now in hand in the Gospel is concerning the Holy Spirit),
hear the apostle when he says, "The charity of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us."(1)

9.
Why then was it the will of the Lord, seeing that the Spirit's benefits
in us are the
greatest,
because by Him the love of God is shed abroad in
our hearts, to give us that Spirit after His resurrection? Why did He signify
by this? In order that in our resurrection our love may be inflamed, and
may part from the love of the world to run wholly towards God. For here
we are born and die: let us not love this world; let us migrate hence by
love; by love let us dwell above, by that love by which we love God. In
this sojourn of our life let us meditate on nothing else, but that here
we shall not always be, and that by good living we shall prepare a place
for ourselves there, whence we shall never migrate. For our Lord Jesus
Christ, after that He is risen again, "now dieth no more;" "death," as
the apostle says, "shall no more have dominion over Him."(2)
Behold what we must love. If we live, if we believe on Him who is risen
again, He will give us, not that which men love here who love not God,
or love the more the less they love Him, but love this the less the more
they love Him; but let us see what He has promised us. Not earthly and
temporal riches, not honors and power in this world; for you see all these
things given to wicked men, that they may not be highly prized by the good.
Not, in short, bodily health itself, though it is He that gives that also,
but that, as you see, He gives even to the beasts. Not long life; for what,
indeed, is long that will some day have an end? It is not length of days
that He has promised to His believers, as if that were a great thing, or
decrepit old age, which all wish for before it comes, and all murmur at
when it does come. Not beauty of person, which either bodily disease or
that same old age which is desired drives away. One wishes to be beautiful,
and also to live to be old: these two desires cannot agree together; if
thou shalt be old, thou wilt not be beautiful; when old age comes, beauty
will flee away; the vigor of beauty and the groaning of old age cannot
dwell together in one body. All these things, then, are not what He promised
us when He said, "He that believeth in me, let him come and drink,
and out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." He has promised
us eternal life, where we shall have no fear, where we shall not be troubled,
whence we shall have no migration, where we shall not die; where there
is neither bewailing a predecessor deceased, nor a hoping for a successor.
Accordingly, because such is what He has promised to us that love Him,
and glow with the charity of the Holy Spirit, therefore He would not give
us that same Spirit until He should be glorified, so that He might show
in His body the life which we have not now, but which we hope for in the
resurrection.

TRACTATE XXXIII.

CHAPTER VII. 40-53; VIII. 1-11.

1.
You remember, my beloved, that in the last discourse, by occasion of
the passage of the
Gospel
read, we spoke to you concerning the Holy Spirit.
When the Lord had invited those that believe on Him to this drinking, speaking
among those who meditated to lay hold of Him, and sought to kill Him, and
were not able, because it was not His will: well, when He had spoken these
things, there arose a dissension among the multitude concerning Him; some
thinking that He was the very Christ, others saying that Christ shall not
arise from Galilee. But they who had been sent to take Him returned clear
of the crime and full of admiration. For they even gave witness to His
divine doctrine, when those by whom they had been sent asked, "Why
have ye not brought him?" They answered that they had never heard
a man so speak: "For not any man so speaks." But He spake thus,
because He was God and man. But the Pharisees, repelling their testimony,
said to them: "Are ye also deceived?" We see, indeed, that you
also have been charmed by his discourses. "Hath any one of the rulers
or the Pharisees believed on him? But this multitude who know not the law
are cursed." They who knew not the law believed on Him who had sent
the law; and those men who were teaching the law despised Him, that it;
might be fulfilled which the Lord Himself had said, "I am come that
they who see not may see, and they that see may be made blind."(1)
For the Pharisees, the teachers of the law, were made blind, and the people
that knew not the law, and yet believed on the author of the law, were
enlightened.

2. "Nicodemus," however, "one of the Pharisees, who had
come to the Lord by night,"--not indeed as being himself unbelieving,
but timid; for therefore he came by night to the light, because he wished
to be enlightened and feared to be known;--Nicodemus, I say, answered the
Jews, "Doth our law judge a man before it hear him, and know what
he doeth?" For they perversely wished to condemn before they examined.
Nicodemus indeed knew, or rather believed, that if only they were willing
to give Him a patient hearing, they would perhaps become like those who
were sent to take Him, but preferred to believe. They answered, from the
prejudice of their heart, what they had answered to those officers, "Art
thou also a Galilean?" That is, one seduced as it were by the Galilean.
For the Lord was said to be a Galilean, because His parents were from the
city of Nazareth. I have said "His parents" in regard to Mary,
not as regards the seed of man; for on earth He sought but a mother, He
had already a Father on high. For His nativity on both sides was marvellous:
divine without mother, human without father. What, then, said those would-be
doctors of the law to Nicodemus? "Search the Scriptures, and see that
out of Galilee ariseth no prophet." Yet the Lord of the prophets arose
thence. "They returned," saith the evangelist, "every man
to his own house."

3. "Thence Jesus went unto the mount;" namely, to mount "Olivet,"--unto
the fruitful mount, unto the mount of ointment, unto the mount of chrism.
For where, indeed, but on mount Olivet did it become the Christ to teach?
For the name of Christ is from chrism; <greek>lrisma</greek> in
the Greek, is called in Latin unctio, an anointing. And He has anointed
us for this reason, because He has made us wrestlers against the devil. "And
early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people
came unto Him; and He sat down and taught them." And He was not taken,
for He did not yet deign to suffer.

4.
And now observe wherein the Lord's gentleness was tempted by His enemies. "And
the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman just taken in adultery:
and they set her in the midst, and said to Him, Master, this woman has
just been taken in adultery. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such
should be stoned: but what sayest thou? But this they said, tempting Him,
that they might accuse Him." Why accuse Him? Had they detected Himself
in any misdeed; or was that woman said to have been concerned with Him
in any manner? What, then, is the meaning of "tempting Him, that they
might accuse Him"? We understand, brethren, that a wonderful gentleness
shone out pre-eminently in the Lord. They observed that He was very meek,
very gentle: for of Him it had been previously foretold, "Gird Thy
sword upon Thy thigh, O most Mighty; in Thy splendor and beauty urge on,
march on prosperously, and reign, because of truth, and meekness, and righteousness."(1)
Accordingly, as a teacher, He brought truth; as a deliverer, He brought
gentleness; as a protector, He brought righteousness. That He was to reign
on account of these things, the prophet had by the Holy Spirit foretold.
When He spoke His truth was acknowledged; when He was not provoked to anger
against His enemies, His meekness was praised. Whilst, therefore, in respect
of these two,--namely, His truth and meekness,--His enemies were tormented
with malice and envy; in respect of the third,--namely, righteousness,--they
laid a stumbling-block for Him. In what way? Because the law had commanded
the adulterers to be stoned, and surely the law could not command what
was unjust: if any man should say other than the law had commanded, he
would be detected as unjust. Therefore they said among themselves, "He
is accounted true, he appears to be gentle; an accusation must be sought
against him in respect of righteousness. Let us bring before him a woman
taken in adultery; let us say to him what is ordered in the law concerning
such: if he shall approve her being stoned, he will not show his gentleness;
if he consent to let her go, he will not keep righteousness. But, say they,
that he may not lose the reputation of gentleness, for which he is become
an object of love to the people, without doubt he will say that she must
be let go. Hence we find an opportunity of accusing him, and we charge
him as being a transgressor of the law: saying to him, Thou art an enemy
to the law; thou answerest against Moses, nay, against Him who gave the
law through Moses; thou art worthy of death: thou too must be stoned with
this woman." By these words and sentiments they might possibly be
able to inflame envy against Him, to urge accusation, and cause His condemnation
to be eagerly demanded. But this against whom? It was perversity against
rectitude, falsehood against the truth, the corrupt heart against the upright
heart, folly against wisdom. When did such men prepare snares, into which
they did not first thrust their own heads? Behold, the Lord in answering
them will both keep righteousness, and will not depart from gentleness.
He was not taken for whom the snare was laid, but rather they were taken
who laid it, because they believed not on Him who could pull them out of
the net.

5.
What answer, then, did the Lord Jesus make? How answered the Truth? How
answered Wisdom?
How answered
that Righteousness against which a false
accusation was ready? He did not say, Let her not be stoned; lest He should
seem to speak against the law. But God forbid that He should say, Let her
be stoned: for He came not to lose, what He had found, but to seek what
was lost. What then did He answer? See you how full it is of righteousness,
how full of meekness and truth! "He that is without sin of you," saith
He, "let him first cast a stone at her." O answer of Wisdom!
How He sent them unto themselves! For without they stood to accuse and
censure, themselves they examined not inwardly: they saw the adulteress,
they looked not into themselves. Transgressors of the law, they wished
the law to be fulfilled, and this by heedlessly accusing; not really fulfilling
it, as if condemning adulteries by chastity. You have heard, O Jews, you
have heard, O Pharisees, you have heard, O teachers of the law, the guardian
of the law, but have not yet understood Him as the Lawgiver. What else
does He signify to you when He writes with His finger on the ground? For
the law was written with the finger of God; but written on stone because
of the hard-hearted. The Lord now wrote on the ground, because He was seeking
fruit. You have heard then, Let the law be fulfilled, let the adulteress
be stoned. But is it by punishing her that the law is to be fulfilled by
those that ought to be punished? Let each of you consider himself, let
him enter into himself, ascend the judgment-seat of his own mind, place
himself at the bar of his own conscience, oblige himself to confess. For
he knows what he is: for "no man knoweth the things of a man, but
the spirit of man which is in him." Each looking carefully into himself,
finds himself a sinner. Yes, indeed. Hence, either let this woman go, or
together with her receive ye the penalty of the law. Had He said, Let not
the adulteress be stoned, He would be proved unjust: had He said, Let her
be stoned, He would not appear gentle: let Him say what it became Him to
say, both the gentle and the just, "Whoso is without sin of you, let
him first cast a stone at her." This is the voice of Justice: Let
her, the sinner, be punished, but not by sinners: let the law be fulfilled,
but not by the transgressors of the law. This certainly is the voice of
justice: by which justice, those men pierced through as if by a dart, looking
into themselves and finding themselves guilty, "one after another
all withdrew." The two were left alone, the wretched woman and Mercy.
But the Lord, having struck them through with that dart of justice, deigned
not to heed their fall, but, turning away His look from them, "again
He wrote with His finger on the ground."

6.
But when that woman was left alone, and all they were gone out, He raised
His eyes to the
woman.
We have heard the voice of justice, let us
also hear the voice of clemency. For I suppose that woman was the more
terrified when she had heard it said by the Lord, "He that is without
sin of you, let him first cast a stone at her." But they, turning
their thought to themselves, and by that very withdrawal having confessed
concerning themselves, had left the woman with her great sin to Him who
was without sin. And because she had heard this, "He that is without
sin. let him first cast a stone at her," she expected to be punished
by Him in whom sin could not be found. But He, who had driven back her
adversaries with the tongue of justice, raising the eyes of clemency towards
her, asked her, "Hath no man condemned thee?" She answered, "No
man, Lord." And He said, "Neither do I condemn thee;" by
whom, perhaps, thou didst fear to be condemned, because in me thou hast
not found sin. "Neither will I condemn thee." What is this, O
Lord? Dost Thou therefore favor sins? Not so, evidently. Mark what follows: "Go,
henceforth sin no more." Therefore the Lord did also condemn, but
condemned sins, not man. For if He were a patron of sin, He would say,
Neither will I condemn thee; go, live as thou wilt: be secure in my deliverance;
how much soever thou wilt sin, I will deliver thee from all punishment
even of hell, and from the tormentors of the infernal world. He said not
this.

7.
Let them take heed, then, who love His gentleness in the Lord, and let
them fear His truth.
For" The Lord is sweet and right."(1)
Thou lovest Him in that He is sweet; fear Him in that He is right. As the
meek, He said, "I held my peace;" but as the just, He said, "Shall
I always be silent?"(2) "The Lord is merciful and pitiful." So
He is, certainly. Add yet further, "Long-suffering;" add yet
further, "And very pitiful:" but fear what comes last, "And
true."(3) For those whom He now bears with as sinners, He will judge
as despisers. "Or despisest thou the riches of His long-suffering
and gentleness; not knowing that the forbearance of God leadeth thee to
repentance? But thou, after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest
up for thyself wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the
righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his
deeds.(4) The Lord is gentle, the Lord is long-suffering, the Lord is pitiful;
but the Lord is also just, the Lord is also true. He bestows on thee space
for correction; but thou lovest the delay of judgment more than the amendment
of thy ways. Hast thou been a bad man yesterday? To-day be a good man.
Hast thou gone on in thy wickedness to-day? At any rate change to-morrow.
Thou art always expecting, and from the mercy of God makest exceeding great
promises to thyself. As if He, who has promised thee pardon through repentance,
promised thee also a longer life. How knowest thou what to-morrow may bring
forth? Rightly thou sayest in thy heart: When I shall have corrected my
ways, God will put all my sins away. We cannot deny that God has promised
pardon to those that have amended their ways and are converted. For in
what prophet thou readest to me that God has promised pardon to him that
amends, thou dost not read to me that God has promised thee a long life.

8.
From both, then, men are in danger; both from hoping and despairing,
from contrary things,
from
contrary affections. Who is deceived by hoping?
He who says, God is good, God is merciful, let me do what I please, what
I like; let me give loose reins to my lusts, let me gratify the desires
of my soul. Why this? Because God is merciful, God is good, God is kind.
These men are in danger by hope. And those are in danger from despair,
who, having fallen into grievous sins, fancying that they can no more be
pardoned upon repentance, and believing that they are without doubt doomed
to damnation, do say with themselves, We are already destined to be damned,
why not do what we please? with the disposition of gladiators destined
to the sword. This is the reason that desperate men are dangerous: for,
having no longer aught to fear, they are to be feared exceedingly. Despair
kills these; hope, those. The mind is tossed to and fro between hope and
despair. Thou hast to fear lest hope slay thee; and, when thou hopest much
from mercy, test thou fall into judgment: again, thou hast to fear lest
despair slay thee, and, when thou thinkest that the grievous sins which
thou hast committed cannot be forgiven thee, thou dost not repent, and
thou incurrest the sentence of Wisdom, which says, "I also will laugh
at your perdition."(5) How then does the Lord treat those who are
in danger from both these maladies? To those who are in danger from hope,
He says, "Be not slow to be converted to the Lord, neither put it
off from day to day; for suddenly His anger will come, and in the time
of vengeance, will utterly destroy thee.(1) To those who are in danger
from despair, what does He say? "In what day soever the wicked man
shall be converted, I will forget all his iniquities."(2) Accordingly,
for the sake of those who are in danger by despair, He has offered us a
refuge of pardon; and because of those who are in danger by hope, and are
deluded by delays, He has made the day of death uncertain. Thou knowest
not when thy last day may come. Art thou ungrateful because thou hast to-day
on which thou mayest be improved? Thus therefore said He to the woman, "Neither
will I condemn thee;" but, being made secure concerning the past,
beware of the future. "Neither will I condemn thee:" I have blotted
out what thou hast done; keep what I have commanded thee, that thou mayest
find what I have promised.

TRACTATE XXXIV.

CHAPTER VIII. 12.

1. What we have just heard and attentively received, as the holy Gospel
was being read, I doubt not that all of us have also endeavored to understand,
and that each of us according to his measure apprehended what he could
of so great a matter as that which has been read; and while the bread of
the word is laid out, no one can complain that he has tasted nothing. But
again I doubt not that there is scarcely any who has understood the whole.
Nevertheless, even should there be any who may sufficiently understand
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ now read out of the Gospel, let him
bear with our ministry, whilst, if possible, with His assistance, we may,
by treating thereof, cause that either all or many may understand that
which a few are joyful of having understood for themselves.

2.
I think that what the Lord says, "I am the light of the world, "is
clear to those that have eyes, by which they are made partakers of this
light: but they who have not eyes except in the flesh alone, wonder at
what is said by the Lord Jesus Christ, "I am the light of the world." And
perhaps there may not be wanting some one too who says with himself: Whether
perhaps the Lord Christ is that sun which by its rising and setting causes
the day? For there have not been wanting heretics who thought this. The
Manicheans have supposed that the Lord Christ is that sun which is visible
to carnal eyes, exposed and public to be seen, not only by men, but by
the beasts. But the right faith of the Catholic Church rejects such a fiction,
and perceives it to be a devilish doctrine: not only by believing acknowledges
it to be such, but in the case of whom it can, proves it even by reasoning.
Let us therefore reject this kind of error, which the Holy Church has anathematized
from the beginning. Let us not suppose that the Lord Jesus Christ is this
sun which we see rising from the east, setting in the west; to whose course
succeeds night, whose rays are obscured by a cloud, which removes from
place to place by a set motion: the Lord Christ is not such a thing as
this. The Lord Christ is not the sun that was made, but He by whom the
sun was made. For "all things were made by Him, and without Him was
nothing made."

3.
There is therefore a Light which made this light of the sun: let us love
this Light, let
us long
to understand it, let us thirst for the same;
that, with itself for our guide, we may at length come to it, and that
we may so live in it that we may never die. This is indeed that Light of
which prophecy long ago going before thus sang in the psalm: "O Lord,
Thou shalt save men and beasts; even as Thy mercy is multiplied, O God." These
are the words of the holy psalm: mark ye what the ancient discourse of
holy men of God did premise concerning such a light. "Men," saith
it, "and beasts Thou shalt save, O Lord; even as Thy mercy is multiplied,
O God." For since Thou art God, and hast manifold mercy, the same
multiplicity of Thy mercy reaches not only to men whom Thou hast created
in Thine own image, but even to the beasts which Thou hast made subservient
to men. For He who gives salvation to man, the same gives salvation also
to the beast. Do not blush to think this of the Lord thy God: nay, rather
believe this and trust it, and see thou think not otherwise. He that saves
thee, the same saves thy horse and thy sheep; to come to the very least,
also thy hen: "Salvation is of the Lord,"(1) and God saves these.
Thou art uneasy, thou questionest. I wonder why thou doubtest. Shall He
disdain to save who deigned to create? Of the Lord is the saving of angels,
of men, and of beasts: "Salvation is of the Lord." Just as no
man is from himself, so no man is saved by himself. Therefore most truly
and right well doth the psalm say, "O Lord, Thou shall save men and
beasts." Why? "Even as thy mercy is multiplied, O God." For
Thou art God, Thou hast created, Thou savest: Thou gavest being, Thou givest
to be in health.

4.
Since, therefore, as the mercy of God is multiplied, men and beasts are
saved by Him, have
not
men something else which God as Creator bestows
on them, which He bestows not on the beasts? Is there no distinction between
the living creature made after the image of God, and the living creature
made subject to the image of God? Clearly there is: beyond that salvation
common to us with the dumb animals, there is what God bestows on us, but
not on them. What is this? Follow on in the same psalm: "But the sons
of men shall hope under the covert of Thy wings." Having now a salvation
in common with their cattle, "the sons of men shall hope under the
covert of Thy wings." They have one salvation in fact, another in
hope. This salvation which is at present is common to men and cattle; but
there is another which men hope for; and which they who hope for receive,
they who despair of receive not. For it saith, "The sons of men shall
hope under covert of Thy wings." And they that perseveringly hope
are protected by Thee, lest they be cast down from their hope by the devil: "Under
covert of Thy wings they shall hope." If they shall hope, what shall
they hope for, but for what the cattle shall not have? "They shall
be fully drunk with the fatness of Thy house; and from the torrent of Thy
pleasure Thou shalt give them drink." What sort of wine is that with
which it is laudable to be drunk? What sort of wine is that which disturbs
not the mind, but directs it? What sort of wine is that which makes perpetually
sane, and makes not insane by drinking? "They shall be fully drunk." How? "With
the fatness of Thy house; and from the torrent of Thy pleasure Thou shalt
give them drink." How so? "Because with Thee is the fountain
of life." The very fountain of life walked on the earth, the same
who said, "Whoso thirsts, let him come unto me." Behold the fountain!
But we begin to speak about the light, and to handle the question laid
down from the Gospel concerning the light. For we read how the Lord said, "I
am the light of the world." Thence arose a question, test any one,
carnally understanding this, should fancy this light to mean the sun: we
came thence to the psalm, which having considered, we found meanwhile that
the Lord is the fountain of life. Drink and live. "With Thee," it
saith, "is the fountain of life;" therefore, "under the
shadow of Thy wings the sons of men hope," seeking to be full drunk
with this fountain. But we were speaking of the Light. Follow on, then;
for the prophet, having said, "With Thee is the fountain of life," went
on to add, "In Thy light shall we see light,"--God of God, Light
of Light. By this Light the sun's light was made; and the Light which made
the sun, under which He also made us, was made under the sun for our sake.
That Light which made the sun, was made, I say, under the sun for our sake.
Do not despise the cloud of the flesh; with that cloud it is covered, not
to be obscured, but to be moderated.

5.
That unfailing Light, the Light of wisdom, speaking through the cloud
of the flesh,
says to men, "I am the light of the world; he that followeth
me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." How
He has withdrawn thee from the eyes of the flesh, and recalled thee to
the eyes of the heart! For it is not enough to say, "Whoso followeth
me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have light;" He added too, "of
life;" even as it was there said, "For with Thee is the fountain
of life." See thus, my brethren, how the words of the Lord agree with
the truth of that psalm: both there, the light is put with the fountain
of life, and by the Lord it is said, "light of life." But for
bodily use, light and fountain are different things: our mouths seek a
fountain, our eyes light; when we thirst we seek a fountain, when we are
in darkness we seek light; and if we chance to thirst in the night, we
kindle a light to come to a fountain. Not so with God: light and fountain
are the same thing: He who shines for thee that thou mayest see, the same
flows for thee that thou mayest drink.

6.
You see, then, my brethren, you see, if you see inwardly, what kind of
light this is,
of which the
Lord says, "He that followeth me shall
not walk in darkness." Follow the sun, and let us see if thou wilt
not walk in darkness. Behold, by rising it comes forth to thee; it goes
by its course towards the west. Perhaps thy journey is towards the east:
unless thou goest in a contrary direction to that in which it travels,
thou wilt certainly err by following it, and instead of east wilt get to
the west. If thou follow it by land, thou wilt go wrong; if the mariner
follow it by sea, he will go wrong. Finally, it seems to thee, suppose,
that thou must follow the sun, and thou also travellest thyself towards
the west, whither it also travels; let us see after it has set if thou
wilt not walk in darkness. See how, although thou art not willing to desert
it, yet it will desert thee, to finish the day by necessity of its service.
But our Lord Jesus Christ, even when He was not manifest to all through
the cloud of His flesh, was yet at the same time holding all things by
the power of His wisdom. Thy God is whole everywhere: if thou fall not
off from Him, He will never fall away from thee.

7.
Accordingly, "He that followeth me," saith He," shall
not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." What He has
promised, He put in a word of the future tense; for He says not has, but "shall
have the light of life." Yet He does not say, He that shall follow
me; but, he that does fallow me. What it is our duty to do, He put in the
present tense; but what He has promised to them that do it, He has indicated
by a word of the future tense. "He that followeth, shall have." That
followeth now, shall have hereafter: followeth now by faith, shall have
hereafter by sight. For, "whilst we are in the body," saith the
apostle, "we are absent from the Lord: for we walk by faith, not by
sight."(1) When shall we walk by sight? When we shall have the light
of life, when we shall have come to that vision, when this night shall
have passed away. Of that day, indeed, which is to arise, it is said. "In
the morning I will stand near thee, and contemplate thee."(2) What
means "in the morning"? When the night of this world is over,
when the terrors of temptations are over, when that lion which goeth about
roaring in the night, seeking whom it may devour, is vanquished. "In
the morning I will stand near thee, and contemplate." Now what do
we think, brethren, to be our duty for the present time, but what is again
said in the psalm, "Every night through will I wash my couch; I will
moisten my bed with my tears"?(3) Every night through, saith he, I
will weep; I will burn with desire for the light. The Lord sees my desire:
for another psalm says to Him, "All my desire is before Thee; and
my groaning is not hid from Thee."(4) Dost thou desire gold? Thou
canst be seen; for, while seeking gold, thou wilt be manifest to men. Dost
thou desire corn? Thou askest one that has it; whom also thou informest,
while seeking to get at that which thou desirest. Dost thou desire God?
Who sees, but God? From whom, then, dost thou seek God, as thou seekest
bread, water, gold, silver, corn? From whom dost thou seek God, except
from God? He is sought from Himself who has promised Himself. Let the soul
extend her desire, and with more capacious bosom seek to comprehend that
which "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath entered into the
heart of man."(5) Desire it we can, long for it we can, pant after
it we can; but worthily conceive it, worthily unfold it in words, we cannot.

8.
Wherefore, my brethren, since the Lord says briefly, "I am the
light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but
shall have the light of life;" in these words He has commanded one
thing, promised another; let us do what He has commanded, that we may not
with shameless face demand what He has promised; that He may not say to
us in His judgment, Hast thou done what I commanded, that thou shouldest
expect what I promised? What hast Thou commanded, then, O Lord our God?
He says to thee, That thou shouldest follow me. Thou hast sought counsel
of life? Of what life, but of that of which it is said, "With Thee
is the fountain of life"? A certain man heard it said to him," Go,
sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure
in heaven; and come, follow me." He followed not, but went away sorrowful;
he sought the "good Master," went to Him as a teacher, and despised
His teaching; he went away sorrowful, tied and bound by his lusts; he went
away sorrowful, having a great load of avarice on his shoulders. He toiled
and fretted; and yet he thought that He, who was willing to rid him of
his load, was not to be followed but forsaken. But after the Lord has,
by the gospel, cried aloud, "Come unto me, all ye that labor, and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest; take my yoke upon you, and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart,"(6) how many, on hearing
the gospel, have done what that rich man, on hearing from His own mouth,
did not do? Therefore, let us do it now, let us follow the Lord; let us
loose the fetters by which we are hindered from following Him. And who
is sufficient to loose such bonds, unless He help, to whom it is said, "Thou
hast burst asunder my bonds"?(1) Of whom another psalm says, "The
Lord looseth them that are in bonds; the Lord raiseth up them that are
crushed and oppressed."(2)

9.
And what do they follow, who have been loosed and raised up, but the
Light from which
they hear, "I am the light of the world: he that
followeth me shall not walk in darkness"? For the Lord gives light
to the blind. Therefore we, brethren, having the eye-salve of faith, are
now enlightened. For His spittle did before mingle with the earth, by which
the eyes of him who was born blind were anointed. We, too, have been born
blind of Adam, and have need of Him to enlighten us. He mixed spittle with
clay: "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." He mixed
spittle with earth; hence it was predicted, "Truth has sprung from
the earth;"(3) and He said Himself, "I am the way, the truth,
and the life." When we shall see face to face, we shall have the full
fruition of the truth; for this also is promised to us. For who would dare
hope for what God had not deigned either to promise or to give? We shall
see face to face. The apostle says, "Now I know in part, now through
a glass darkly; but then, face to face."(4) And the Apostle John says
in his epistle, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it has not
yet appeared what we shall be: we know that, when He shall appear, we shall
be like Him; for we shall see Him even as He is."(5) This is a great
promise; if thou lovest, follow. I do love, sayest thou, but by what way
am I to follow? If the Lord thy God had said to thee, "I am the truth
and the life," in desiring truth and longing for life, thou mightest
truly ask the way by which thou mightest come to these, and mightest say
to thyself: A great thing is the truth, a great thing is the life, were
there only the means whereby my soul might come thereto! Dost thou ask
by what way? Hear Him say at the first, "I am the way." Before
He said whither, He premised by what way: "I am," saith He, "the
way." The way whither? "And the truth and the life." First,
He told thee the way to come; then, whither to come. I am the way, I am
the truth, I am the life. Remaining with the Father, the truth and life;
putting on flesh, He became the way. It is not said to thee, Labor in finding
a way to come to the truth and life; this is not said to thee. Sluggard,
arise: the way itself has come to thee, and roused thee from thy sleep;
if, however, it has roused thee, up and walk. Perhaps thou art trying to
walk, and art not able, because thy feet ache. How come thy feet to ache?
Have they been running over rough places at the bidding of avarice? But
the word of God has healed even the lame. Behold, thou sayest, I have my
feet sound, but the way itself I see not. He has also enlightened the blind.

10.
All this by faith, so long as we are absent from the Lord, dwelling in
the body; but when
we shall
have traversed the way, and have reached
the home itself, what shall be more joyful than we? What shall be more
blessed than we? Because nothing more at peace than we; for there will
be no rebelling against a man. But now, brethren, it is difficult for us
to be without strife. We have indeed been called to concord, we are commanded
to have peace among ourselves; to this we must give our endeavor, and strain
with all our might, that we may come at last to the most perfect peace;
but at present we are at strife, very often with those whose good we are
seeking. There is one who goes astray, thou wishest to lead him to the
way; he resists, thou strivest with him: the pagan resists thee, thou disputest
against the errors of idols and devils; a heretic resists, thou disputest
against other doctrines of devils; a bad catholic is not willing to live
aright, thou rebukest even thy brother within; he dwells with thee in the
house, and seeks the paths of ruin; thou art inflamed with eager passion
to put him right, that thou mayest render to the Lord a good account of
both concerning him. How many necessities of strife there are on every
side! Very often one is overcome with weariness, and says to himself, "What
have I to do with bearing with gainsayers, bearing with those who render
evil for good? I wish to benefit them, they are willing to perish; I wear
out my life in strife; I have no peace; besides, I make enemies of those
whom I ought to have as friends, if they regarded the good will of him
that seeks their good: what business is it of mine to endure this? Let
me return to myself, I will be kept to myself, I will call upon my God.
Do return to thyself, thou findest strife there. If thou hast begun to
follow God, thou findest strife there. What strife, sayest thou, do I find? "The
flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh."(6)
Behold thou art thyself, thou art alone, thou art with thyself; behold,
thou art bearing with no other person, but yet thou seest another law in
thy members warring against the law of thy mind, and taking thee captive
in the law of sin, which is in thy members. Cry aloud, then, and cry to
God, that He may give thee peace from the inner strife: "O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace
of God through our Lord Jesus Christ."(1) Because, "He that followeth
me," saith He, "shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the
light of life." All strife ended, immortality shall follow; for "the
last enemy, death, shall be destroyed." And what peace will this be? "This
corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality."(2)
To which that we may come (for it will then be in reality), let us now
follow in hope Him who said, "I am the light of the world: he that
followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."

TRACTATE XXXV.

CHAPTER VIII. 13, 14.

1.
You who were present yesterday, bear in mind that we were a long while
discoursing of the
words of our
Lord Jesus Christ, where He says, "I
am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness,
but shall have the light of life;" and if we wished to go on discoursing
of that light, we might Still speak a long time; for it would be impossible
for us to expound the matter in brief. Therefore, my brethren, let us follow
Christ, the light of the world, that we may not be walking in darkness.
We must fear the darkness,--not the darkness of the eyes, but that of the
moral character; and even if it be the darkness of the eyes, it is not
of the outer, but of the inner eyes, of those by which we discern, not
between white and black, but between right and wrong.

2.
When our Lord Jesus Christ had spoken these things, the Jews answered, "Thou
bearest record of thyself; thy record is not true." Before our Lord
Jesus Christ came, He lighted and sent many prophetic lamps before Him.
Of these was also John Baptist, to whom the great Light itself, which is
the Lord Christ, gave a testimony such as was given to no other man; for
He said, "Among them that are born of women, there hath not risen
a greater than John the Baptist."(1) Yet this man, than whom none
was greater among those born of women, said of the Lord Jesus Christ, "I
indeed baptize you in water; but He that is coming is mightier than I,
whose shoe I am not worthy to loose."(2) See how the lamps submits
itself to the Day. The Lord Himself bears witness that the same John was
indeed a lamp: "He was," saith He, "a burning and a shining
lamp; and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light."(3)
But when the Jews said to the Lord, "Tell us by what authority thou
doest these things," He, knowing that they regarded John the Baptist
as a great one, and that the same whom they regarded as a great one had
borne witness to them concerning the Lord, answered them, "I also
will ask you one thing; tell me, the baptism of John, whence is it? from
heaven, or from men?" Thrown into confusion, they considered among
themselves that, if they said, "From men," they might be stoned
by the people, who believed John to be a prophet; if they said, "From
heaven," He might answer them, "He whom ye confess to have been
a prophet from heaven bore testimony to me, and ye have heard from him
by what authority I do these things." They saw, then, that whichever
of these two answers they made, they would fall into the snare, and they
said, "We do not know." And the Lord answered them, "Neither
tell I you by what authority I do these things."(4) "I tell you
not what I know, because you will not confess what you know." Most
justly, certainly, were they repulsed, and they departed in confusion;
and that was fulfilled which God the Father says by the prophet in the
psalm, "I have prepared a lamp for my Christ" (the lamp was John); "His
enemies I will clothe with confusion."(5)

3.
The Lord Jesus Christ, then, had the witness of prophets sent before
Him, of the heralds
that preceded
the judge: He had witness from John;
but He was Himself the greater witness which He bore to Himself. But those
men with their feeble eyes sought lamps, because they were not able to
bear the day; for that same Apostle John, whose Gospel we have in our hands,
says in the beginning of his Gospel, concerning John the Baptist: "There
was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came for a witness, to
bear witness of the light, that all men might believe through him. He was
not the light, but was sent to bear witness of the light. That was the
true light, that lighteth every man coming into the world." If "every
man," therefore also lighteth John. Whence also the same John says, "We
all have received out of His fullness." Wherefore discern ye these
things, that your minds may profit in the faith of Christ, that ye be not
always babes seeking the breasts and shrinking from solid food. You ought
to be nourished and to be weaned by our holy mother the Church of Christ,
and to come to more solid food by the mind, not by the belly. This discern
ye then, that the light which enlighteneth is one thing, another that which
is enlightened. For also our eyes are called lights;(1) and every man thus
swears, touching his eyes, by these lights of his: "So may my lights
live." This is a customary oath. Let these lights, if lights they
are, be opened, and shine for thee in thy closed chamber, when the light
is not there; they certainly cannot. Therefore, as these which we have
in our face, and call lights, when they are both healthy and open, need
the help of light from without,--which being removed or not brought in,
though they are sound and are open, yet they do not see,--so our mind,
which is the eye of the soul, unless it be irradiated by the light of truth,
and wondrously shone upon by Him who enlightens and is not enlightened,
will not be able to come to wisdom nor to righteousness. For to live righteously
is for us the way itself. But how can he on whom the light does not shine
but stumble in the way? And hence, in such a way, we have need of seeing,
in such a way it is a great thing to see. Now Tobias had the eyes in his
face closed, and the son gave his hand to the father; and yet the father,
by his instruction, pointed out the way to the son.(2)

4.
The Jews then answered, "Thou bearest witness of thyself; thy
witness is not true." Let us see what they hear; let us also hear,
yet not as they did: they despising, we believing; they wishing to slay
Christ, we desiring to live through Christ. Let this difference distinguish
our ears and minds from theirs, and let us hear what the Lord answers to
the Jews. "Jesus answered and said to them, Though I bear witness
of myself, my witness is true; because I know whence I came and whither
I go." The light shows both other things and also itself. Thou lightest
a lamp, for instance, to look for thy coat, and the burning lamp affords
thee light to find thy coat; dost thou light the lamp to see itself when
it burns? A burning lamp is indeed capable at the same time of exposing
to view other things which the darkness covered, and also of showing itself
to thine eyes. So also the Lord Christ distinguished between His faithful
ones and His Jewish enemies, as between light and darkness: as between
those whom He illuminated with the ray of faith, and those on whose closed
eyes He shed His light. So, too, the sun shines on the face of the sighted
and of the blind; both alike standing and facing the sun are shone upon
in the flesh, but both are not enlightened in the eyesight. The one sees,
the other sees not: the sun is present to both, but one is absent from
the present sun. So likewise the Wisdom of God, the Word of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ, is everywhere present, because the truth is everywhere, wisdom
is everywhere. One man in the east understands justice, another man in
the west understands justice; is justice which the one understands a different
thing from that which the other understands? In body they are far apart,
and yet they have the eyes of their minds on one object. The justice which
I, placed here, see, if justice it is, is the same which the just man,
separated from me in the flesh by ever so many days' journey, also Sees,
and is united to me in the light of that justice. Therefore the light bears
witness to itself; it opens the sound eyes and is its own witness, that
it may be known as the light. But how about the unbelievers? Is it not
present to them? It is present also to them, but they have not eyes of
the heart with which to see it. Hear the sentence fetched from the Gospel
itself concerning them: "And the light shineth in darkness, and the
darkness comprehended it not."(3) Hence the Lord saith, and saith
truly, "Though I bear witness of myself, my witness is true; because
I know whence I came and whither I go." He meant us to understand
the Father here: the Son gave glory to the Father. Himself the equal glorifies
Him by whom He was sent. How ought man to glorify Him by whom he was created!

5. "I know whence I came and whither I go." He who speaks to
you in person has what He has not left, and yet He came; for by coming
He departed not thence, nor has He forsaken us by returning thither. Why
marvel ye? It is God: this cannot be done by man; it cannot be done even
by the sun. When it goes to the west it leaves the east, and until it returns
to the east, when about to rise, it is not in the east; but our Lord Jesus
Christ both comes and is there, both returns and is here. Hear the evangelist
himself speaking in another place, and, if thou canst, understand it; if
not, believe it: "God," saith he, "no man hath ever seen,
but the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared
Him." He said not was in the bosom of the Father, as if by coming
He had quitted the Father's bosom. Here He was speaking, and yet He declared
that He was there; and when about to depart hence, what said He? "Lo,
I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."(1)

6.
The witness of the light then is true, whether it be manifesting itself
or other things;
for without
light thou canst not see light, and without
light thou canst not see any other thing whatever that is not light. If
light is capable of showing other things which are not lights, is it not
capable of showing itself? Does not that discover itself, without which
other things cannot be made manifest? A prophet spoke a truth; but whence
had he it, unless he drew it from the fountain of truth? John spoke a truth;
but whence he spoke it, ask himself: "We all," saith he "have
received of His fullness." Therefore our Lord Jesus Christ is worthy
to bear witness to Himself. But in any case, my brethren, let us who are
in the night of this world hear also prophecy with earnest attention for
now our Lord willed to come in humility to our weakness and the deep night-darkness
of our hearts: He came as a man to be despised and to be honored, He came
to be denied and to be confessed; to be despised and to be denied by the
Jews, to be honored and confessed by us: to be judged and to judge; to
be judged unjustly, to judge righteously. Such then He came that He behoved
to have a lamp to bear witness to Him. For what need was there that John
should, as a lamp, bear witness to the day, if the day itself could be
looked upon by our weakness? But we could not look upon it: He became weak
for the weak; by infirmity He healed infirmity; by mortal flesh He took
away the death of the flesh; of His own body He made a salve for our eyes.
Since, therefore, the Lord is come, and since we are still in the night
of the world, it behoves us to hear also prophecies.

7.
For it is from prophecy that we convince gainsaying pagans. Who is Christ?
says the
pagan. To
whom we reply, He whom the prophets foretold.
What prophets? asks he. We quote Isaiah, Daniel, Jeremiah, and other holy
prophets: we tell him that they came long before Christ, by what length
of time they preceded His coming. We make this reply then: Prophets came
before Him, and they foretold His coming. One of them answers: What prophets?
We quote for him those which are daily read to us. And, said he, Who are
these prophets? We answer: Those who also foretold the things which we
see come to pass. And he urges: You have forged these for yourselves, you
have seen them come to pass, and have written them in what books you pleased,
as if their coming had been predicted. Here in opposition to pagan enemies
the witness of other enemies offers itself. We produce books written by
the Jews, and reply: Doubtless both you and they are enemies of our faith.
Hence are they scattered among the nations, that we may convince one class
of enemies by another. Let the book of Isaiah be produced by the Jews,
and let us see if it is not there we read, "He was led as a sheep
to be slaughtered, and as a lamb before his shearer was dumb, so He opened
not His mouth. In humility His judgment was taken away; by His bruises
we are healed: all we as sheep went astray, and He was delivered up for
our sins."(2) Behold one lamp. Let another be produced, let the psalm
be opened, and thence, too, let the foretold suffering of Christ be quoted: "They
pierced my hands and my feet, they counted all my bones: but they considered
me and gazed upon me, they parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture
they cast the lot. My praise is with Thee; in the great assembly will I
confess to Thee. All the ends of the earth shall be reminded, and be converted
to the Lord: all countries of the nations shall worship in His sight; for
the kingdom is the Lord's, and He shall have dominion over the nations."(3)
Let one enemy blush, for it is another enemy that gives me the book. But
lo, out of the book produced by the one enemy, I have vanquished the other:
nor let that same who produced me the book be left; let him produce that
by which himself also may be vanquished. I read another prophet, and I
find the Lord speaking to the Jews: "I have no pleasure in you, saith
the Lord, nor will I accept sacrifice at your hands: for from the rising
of the sun even to his going down, a pure sacrifice is offered to my name."(1)
Thou dost not come, O Jew, to a pure sacrifice; I prove thee impure.

8.
Behold, even lamps bear witness to the day, because of our weakness,
for we cannot bear
and look
at the brightness of the day. In comparison,
indeed, with unbelievers, we Christians are even now light; as the apostle
says, "For ye were once darkness, but now light in the Lord: walk
as children of light:"(2) and he says elsewhere, "The night is
far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast away the works of
darkness, and put on us the armor of light; let us walkhon estly as in
the day."(3) Yet that even the day in which we now are is still night,
in comparison with the light of that to which we are to come, listen to
the Apostle Peter: he says that a voice came to the Lord Christ from the
excellent glory, "Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
This voice," said he, "which came from heaven, we heard, when
we were with Him in the holy mount." But because we were not there,
and have not then heard this voice from heaven, the same Peter says to
us, "And we have a more sure word of prophecy." You have not
heard the voice come from heaven, but you have a more sure word of prophecy.
For the Lord Jesus Christ, foreseeing that there would be certain wicked
men who would calumniate His miracles, by attributing them to magical arts,
sent prophets before Him. For, supposing He was a magician, and by magical
arts caused that He should be worshipped after His death, was He then a
magician before He was born? Hear the prophets, O man dead, and breeding
the worms of calumny, hear the prophets: I read, hear them who came before
the Lord. "We have," saith the Apostle Peter, "a more sure
word of prophecy, to which ye do well to give heed, as to a lamp in a dark
place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts."(4)

9.
When, therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ shall come, and, as the Apostle
Paul also says,
will bring
to light the hidden things of darkness, and
will make manifest the thoughts of the heart, that every man may have praise
from God;(5) then, in presence of such a day, lamps will not be needed:
no prophet shall then be read to us, no book of an apostle shall be opened;
we shall not require the witness of John, we shall not need the Gospel
itself. Accordingly all Scriptures shall be taken out of the way,--which,
in the night of this world, were as lamps kindled for us that we might
not remain in darkness,--when all these are taken away, that they may not
shine as if we needed them, and the men of God, by whom these were ministered
to us, shall themselves, together with us, behold that true and clear light.
Well, what shall we see after these aids have been removed? Wherewith shall
our mind be fed? Wherewith shall our gaze be delighted? Whence shall arise
that joy which neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, nor hath gone up into
the heart of man? What shall we see? I beseech you, love with me, by believing
run with me: let us long for our home above, let us pant for our home above,
let us feel that we are strangers here. What shall we see then? Let the
Gospel now tell us: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God." Thou shalt come to the fountain from
which a little dew has already besprinkled thee: thou shalt see that very
light, from which a ray was sent aslant and through many windings into
thy dark heart, in its purity, for the seeing and bearing of which thou
art being purified. John himself says, and this I cited yesterday: "Beloved,
we are the sons of God; and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be:
we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall
see Him even as He is."(6) I feel that your affections are being lifted
up with me to the things that are above: but the body, which is corrupt,
weighs down the soul; and, the earthly habitation depresses the mind while
meditating many things.(7) I am about to lay aside this book, and you too
are going to depart, every man to his own house. It has been good for us
to have been in the common light, good to have been glad therein, good
to have rejoiced therein; but when we part from one another, let us not
depart from Him.

TRACTATE XXXVI.

CHAPTER VIII. 15-18.

1.
In the four Gospels, or rather in the four books of the one Gospel, Saint
John the apostle,
not
undeservedly in respect of his spiritual understanding
compared to the eagle, has elevated his preaching higher and far more sublimely
than the other three; and in this elevating of it he would have our hearts
likewise lifted up. For the other three evangelists walked with the Lord
on earth as with a man; concerning His divinity they have said but little;
but this evangelist, as if he disdained to walk on earth, just as in the
very opening of his discourse he thundered on us, soared not only above
the earth and above the whole compass of air and sky, but even above the
whole army of angels and the whole order of invisible powers, and reached
to Him by whom all things were made; saying, "In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was in
the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was
nothing made." To this so great sublimity of his beginning all the
rest of his preaching well agrees; and he has spoken concerning the divinity
of the Lord as none other has spoken. What he had drank in, the same he
gave forth. For it is not without reason that it is recorded of him in
this very Gospel, that at supper he reclined on the Lord's bosom. From
that breast then he drank in secret; but what he drank in secret he gave
forth openly, that there may come to all nations not only the incarnation
of the Son of God, and His passion and resurrection, but also what He was
before His incarnation, the only Son of the Father, the Word of the Father,
coeternal with Him that begat, equal with Him by whom He was sent; but
yet in that very sending made less, that the Father might be greater.

2. Whatever, then, you have heard stated in lowly manner concerning the
Lord Jesus Christ, think of that economy by which He assumed flesh; but
whatever you hear, or read, stated in the Gospel concerning Him that is
sublime and high above all creatures, and divine, and equal and coeternal
with the Father, be sure that this which you read appertains to the form
of God, not to the form of the servant. For if you hold this rule, you
who can understand it (inasmuch as you are not all able to understand it,
but you are all bound to trust it),--if, I say, you hold this rule, as
men walking in the light, you will fight against the calumnies of heretical
darkness without fear. For there have not been wanting those who, in reading
the Gospel, followed only those testimonies that concern the humility of
Christ, and have been deaf to those which have declared His divinity; deaf
for this reason, that they may be full of evil words. There have likewise
been some, who, giving heed only to those which speak of the excellency
of the Lord, even though they have read of His mercy in becoming man for
our sakes, have not believed the testimonies, but accounted them false
and invented by men; contending that our Lord Jesus Christ was only God,
not also man Some in this way, some in that: both in error. But the catholic
faith, holding from both the truths which each holds and preaching the
truth which each believes, has both understood that Christ is God and also
believed Him to be man: for each is written and each is true. Shouldst
thou assert that Christ is only God, thou deniest the medicine whereby
thou wast healed: shouldst thou assert that Christ is only man, thou deniest
the power whereby thou wast created. Hold therefore both. O faithful soul
and catholic heart, hold both, believe both, faithfully confess both. Christ
is both God and also man. How is Christ God? Equal with the Father, one
with the Father. How is Christ man? Born of a virgin, taking upon Himself
mortality from man, but not taking iniquity.

3
These Jews then saw the man; they neither perceived nor believed Him
to be God: and you
have already
heard how, among all the rest, they said
to Him, "Thou bearest witness of thyself; thy witness is not true." You
have also heard what He said in reply, as it was read to you yesterday,
and according to our ability discussed. To-day have been read these words
of His, "Ye judge after the flesh." Therefore it is, saith He,
that you say to me, "Thou bearest witness of thyself; thy witness
is not true," because you judge after the flesh, because you perceive
not God; the man you see, and by persecuting the man, you offend God hidden
in Him. "Ye," then, "judge after the flesh." Because
I bear witness of myself, I therefore appear to you arrogant. For every
man, when he wishes to bear commendatory witness of himself, seems arrogant
and proud. Hence it is written, "Let not thy own mouth praise thee,
but let thy neighbor's" mouth praise thee.(1) But this was said to
man. For we are weak, and we speak to the weak. We can speak the truth,
but we can also lie; although we are bound to speak the truth, still we
have it in our power to lie when we will. But far be it from us to think
that the darkness of falsehood could be found in the splendor of the divine
light. He spoke as the light, spoke as the truth; but the light was shining
in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not: therefore they judged
after the flesh. "Ye," saith He, "judge after the flesh."

4. "I judge not any man." Does not the Lord Jesus Christ, then,
judge any man? Is He not the same of whom we confess that He rose again
on the third day, ascended into heaven, there sits at the right hand of
the Father, and thence shall come to judge the quick and the dead? Is not
this our faith of which the apostle says, "With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation?"(2)
When, therefore, we confess these things, do we contradict the Lord? We
say that He shall come a judge of the quick and the dead, whilst He says
Himself, "I judge not any man." This question maybe solved in
two ways: Either that we may understand this expression, "I judge
not any man," to mean, I judge not any man now; in accordance with
what He says in another place, "I am not come to judge the world,
But to save the world;" not denying His judgment here, but deferring
it. Or, otherwise, surely that when He said, "Ye judge after the flesh," He
subjoined, "I judge not any man," in such manner that thou shouldst
understand "after the flesh" to complete the sense. Therefore
let no scruple of doubt remain in our heart against the faith which we
hold and declare concerning Christ as judge. Christ is come, but first
to save, then to judge: to adjudge to punishment those who would not be
saved; to bring them to life who, by believing, did not reject salvation.
Accordingly, the first dispensation of our Lord Jesus Christ is medicinal,
not judicial; for if He had come to judge first, He would have found none
on whom He might bestow the rewards of righteousness. Because, therefore,
He saw that all were sinners, and that none was exempt from the death of
sin, His mercy had first to be craved, and afterwards His judgment must
be executed; for of Him the psalm had sung, "Mercy and judgment will
I sin to Thee, O Lord."(3) Now, He says not judgment and mercy," for
if judgment had been first, there would be no mercy; but it is mercy first,
then judgment. What is the mercy first? The Creator of man deigned to become
man; was made what He had made, that the creature He had made might not
perish. What can be added to this mercy? And yet He has added thereto.
It was not enough for Him to be made man, He added to this that He was
rejected of men; it was not enough to be rejected, He was dishonored; it
was not enough to be dishonored, He was put to death; but even this was
not enough, it was by the death of the cross. For when the apostle was
commending to us His obedience even unto death, it was not enough for him
to say, "He became obedient unto death;" for it was not unto
death of any kind whatever: but he added, "even the death of the cross."(4)
Among all kinds of death, there was nothing worse than that death. In short,
that wherein one is racked by the most intense pains is called cruciatus,
which takes its name from crux, a cross. For the crucified, hanging on
the tree, nailed to the wood, were killed by a slow lingering death. To
be crucified was not merely to be put to death; for the victim lived long
on the cross, not because longer life was chosen, but because death itself
was stretched out that the pain might not be too quickly ended. He willed
to die for us, yet it is not enough to say this; He deigned to be crucified,
became obedient even to the death of the cross. He who was about to take
away all death, chose the lowest and worst kind of death: He slew death
by the worst of deaths. To the Jews who understood not, it was indeed the
worst of deaths, but it was chosen by the Lord. For He was to have that
very cross as His sign; that very cross, a trophy, as it were, over the
vanquished devil, He was to put on the brow of believers, so that the apostle
said, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world."(5)
Nothing was then more intolerable in the flesh, nothing is now more glorious
on the brow. What does He reserve for His faithful one, when He has put
such honor on the instrument of His own torture? Now is the cross no longer
used among the Romans in the punishment of criminals, for where the cross
of the Lord came to be honored, it was thought that even a guilty man would
be honored if he should be crucified. Hence, He who came for this cause
judged no man: He suffered also the wicked. He suffered unjust judgment,
that He might execute righteous judgment. But it was of His mercy that
He endured unjust judgment. In short, He became so low as to come to the
cross; yea, laid aside His power, but published His mercy. Wherein did
He lay aside His power? In that He would not come down from the cross,
though He had the power to rise again from the sepulchre. Wherein did He
publish His mercy? In that, when hanging on the cross, He said, "Father,
forgive them; for they know not what they do."(1) Whether, then, it
be that He said, "I judge not any man," because He had come not
to judge the world, out to save the world; or, that, as I have mentioned,
when He had said, "Ye judge after the flesh," He added, "I
judge not any man," for us to understand that Christ judgeth not after
the flesh, like as He was judged by men.

5.
But that you may know that Christ is judge even now, hear what follows: "And
if I judge, my judgment is true." Behold, thou hast Him as thy judge,
but acknowledge Him as thy Saviour, lest thou feel the judge. But why has
He said that His judgment is true? "Because," saith He, "I
am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me." I have said to you,
brethren, that this holy Evangelist John soars exceedingly high: it is
with difficulty that he is comprehended. But we need to remind you, beloved,
of the deeper mystery of this soaring. Both in the prophet Ezekiel, and
in the Apocalypse of this very John whose Gospel this is, there is mentioned
a fourfold living creature, having four characteristic faces; that of a
man, of an ox, of a lion, and of an eagle. Those who have handled the mysteries
of Holy Scripture before us have, for the most part, understood by this
living creature, or rather, these four living creatures, the four evangelists.
They have understood the lion as put for king, because he appears to be,
in a manner, the king of beasts on account of his strength and terrible
valor. This character is assigned to Matthew, because in the generations
of the Lord he followed the royal line, showing how the Lord was, along
the royal line, of the seed of David. But Luke, because he begins with
the priesthood of Zacharias, mentioning the father of John the Baptist,
is designated the ox; for the ox was an important victim in the sacrifice
of the priests. To Mark is deservedly assigned the man Christ, because
neither has he said anything of the royal authority, nor did he begin with
the priestly function, but only set out with the man Christ. All these
have departed but little from the things of earth, that is, from those
things which our Lord Jesus Christ performed on earth; of His divinity
they have said very little, like men walking with Him on the earth. There
remains the eagle; this is John, the preacher of sublime truths, and a
contemplator with steady gaze of the inner and eternal light. It is said,
indeed, that the young eagles are tested by the parent birds in this way:
the young one is suspended from the talons of the male parent and directly
exposed to the rays of the sun; if it looks steadily at the sun, it is
recognized as a true brood; if its eye quivers, it is allowed to drop off,
as a spurious brood. Now, therefore, consider how sublime are the things
he ought to speak who is compared to the eagle; and yet even we, who creep
on the earth, weak and hardly of any account among men, venture to handle
and to expound these things; and imagine that we can either apprehend when
we meditate them, or be apprehended when we speak.

6. Why have I said this? For perhaps after these words one may justly
say to me: Lay aside the book then. Why dost thou take in hand what exceeds
thy measure? Why trust thy tongue to it? To this I reply: Many heretics
abound; and God has permitted them to abound to this end, that we may not
be always nourished with milk and remain in senseless infancy. For inasmuch
as they have not understood how the divinity of Christ is set forth to
our acceptance, they have concluded according to their will: and by not
discerning aright, they have brought in most troublesome questions upon
catholic believers; and the hearts of believers began to be disturbed and
to waver. Then immediately it became a necessity for spiritual men, who
had not only read in the Gospel anything respecting the divinity of our
Lord Jesus Christ, but had also understood it, to bring forth the armor
of Christ against the armor of the devil, and with all their might to fight
in most open conflict for the divinity of Christ against false and deceitful
teachers; lest, while they were silent, others might perish. For whoever
have thought either that our Lord Jesus Christ is of another substance
than the Father is, or that there is only Christ, so that the same is Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit; whoever also have chosen to think that He was only
man, not God made man, or God in such wise as to be mutable in His Godhead,
or God in such wise as not to be man; these have made shipwreck from the
faith, and have been cast forth from the harbor of the Church, lest by
their inquietude they might wreck the ships in their company. Which thing
obliged that even we, though least and as regards ourselves wholly unworthy,
but in regard of His mercy set in some account among His stewards, should
speak to you what either you may understand and rejoice with me, or, if
you cannot yet understand, by believing it you may remain secure in the
harbor.

7.
I will accordingly speak; let him who can, understand; and let him who
cannot understand,
believe:
yet will I speak what the Lord saith, "Ye
judge after the flesh; I judge not any man," either now, or after
the flesh. "But even, if I judge, my judgment is true." Why is
Thy judgment true? "Because I am not alone," saith He, "but
I and the Father that sent me." What then, O Lord Jesus? If Thou wert
alone would Thy judgment be false: and is it because Thou art not alone,
but Thou and the Father that sent Thee, that Thou judgest truly? How shall
I answer? Let Himself answer: He saith, "My judgment is true." Why? "Because
I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me." If He is with
These, how has He sent Thee? And has He sent Thee, and yet is He also with
Thee? Is it so that having been sent, Thou hast not departed from Him?
And didst Thou come to us, and yet abode there? How is this to be believed?
how apprehended? To these two questions I answer: Thou sayest rightly,
how is it to be apprehended; how believed, thou sayest not rightly. Rather,
for that reason is it right to believe it, because it is not immediately
to be apprehended; for if it were a thing to be immediately apprehended,
there would be no need to believe it, because it would be seen. It is because
thou dost not apprehend that thou believest; but by believing thou art
made capable of apprehending. For if thou dost not believe, thou wilt never
apprehend, since thou wilt remain less capable. Let faith then purify thee,
that understanding may fill thee. "My judgment is true," saith
He, "because I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me." Therefore,
O Lord our God, Jesus Christ, Thy sending is Thy incarnation. So I see,
so I understand: in short, so I believe, in case it may smack of arrogance
to say, so I understand. Doubtless the Lord Jesus Christ is even here;
rather, was here as to His flesh, is here now as to His Godhead: He was
both with the Father and had not left the Father. Hence, in that, He is
said to have been sent and to have come to us, His incarnation is set forth
to us, for the Father did not take flesh.

8.
For there are certain heretics called Sabellians, who are also called
Patripassians, who affirm
that
it was the Father Himself that had suffered.
Do not thou so affirm, O Catholic; for if thou wilt be a Patripassian,
thou wilt not be sane. Understand, then, that the incarnation of the Son
is termed the sending of the Son; and do not believe that the Father was
incarnate, but do not yet believe that He departed from the incarnate Son.
The Son carried flesh, the Father was with the Son. If the Father was in
heaven, the Son on earth, how was the Father with the Son? Because both
Father and Son were everywhere: for God is not in such manner in heaven
as not to be on earth. Hear him who would flee from the judgment of God,
and found not a way to flee by: "Whither shall I go," saith he, "from
Thy Spirit; and whither shall I flee from Thy face? If I ascend up into
heaven, Thou art there." The question was about the earth; hear what
follows: "If I descend unto hell, Thou art there."(1) If, then,
He is said to be present even in hell, what in the universe remains where
He is not present? For the voice of God with the prophet is, "I fill
heaven and earth."(2) Hence He is everywhere, who is confined by no
place. Turn not thou away from Him, and He is with thee. If thou wouldst
come to Him, be not slow to love; for it is not with feet but with affections
thou runnest. Thou comest while remaining in one place, if thou believest
and lovest. Wherefore He is everywhere; and if everywhere, how not also
with the Son? Is it so that He is not with the Son, while, if thou believest,
He is even with thee?

9.
How, then, is His judgment true, but because the Son is true? For this
He said: "And if I judge, my judgment is true; because I am not alone,
but I and the Father that sent me." Just as if He had said, "My
judgment is true," because I am the Son of God. How dost Thou prove
that Thou art the Son of God? "Because I am not alone, but I and the
Father that sent me." Blush, Sabellian; thou hearest the Salt, thou
hearest the Father. Father is Father, Son is Son. He said not, I am the
Father. and I the same am the Son; but He saith, "I am not alone." Why
art Thou not alone? Because the Father is with me. "I am, and the
Father that sent me;" thou hearest, "I am, and He that sent me." Lest
thou lose sight of the person, distinguish the persons. Distinguish by
understanding, do not separate by faithlessness; lest again, fleeing as
it were Charybdis, thou rush Upon Scylla. For the whirlpool of the impiety
of the Sabellians was swallowing thee, to say that the Father is the same
who is Son: just now thou hast learned, "I am not alone, but I and
the Father that sent me." Thou dost acknowledge that the Father is
Father, and that the Son is Son thou dost rightly acknowledge: but do not
say the Father is greater, the Son is less; do not say, the Father is gold,
the Son is silver. There is one substance, one Godhead, one co-eternity,
perfect equality, no unlikeness. For if thou only believe that Christ is
another, not the same person that the Father is, but yet imagine that in
respect of His nature He is somewhat different from the Father, thou hast
indeed escaped Charybdis, but thou hast been wrecked on the rocks of Scylla.
Steer the middle course, avoid each of the two perilous sides. Father is
Father, Son is Son. Thou sayest now, Father is Father, Son is Son: thou
hast fortunately escaped the danger of the absorbing whirl; why wouldst
thou go unto the other side to say, the Father is this, the Son that? The
Son is another person than the Father is, this thou sayest rightly; but
that He is different in nature, thou sayest not rightly. Certainly the
Son is another person, because He is not the same who is Father and the
Father is another person, because He is not the same who is Son: nevertheless,
they are not different in nature, but the selfsame is both Father and Son.
What means the self-same? God is one. Thou hast heard, "Because I
am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me:" hear how thou mayest
believe Father and Son; hear the Son Himself, "I and the Father are
one."(1) He said not, I am the Father; or, I and the Father is one
person; but when He says, "I and the Father are one," hear both,
both the one, unum, and the are, sumus, and thou shalt be delivered both
from Charybdis and from Scylla. In these two words, in that He said one,
He delivers thee from Arius; in that He said are, He delivers thee from
Sabellius. If one, therefore not diverse; if are, therefore both Father
and Son. For He would not say are of one person; but, on the other hand,
He would not say one of diverse. Hence the reason why He says, "my
judgment is true," is, that thou mayest hear it briefly, because I
am the Son of God. But I would have thee in such wise believe that I am
the Son of God, that thou mayest understand that the Father is with me:
I am not Son in such manner as to have left Him; I am not in such manner
here that I should not be with Him; nor is He in such manner there as not
to be with me: I have taken to me the form of a servant, yet have I not
lost the form of God; therefore He saith, "I am not alone, but I and
the Father that sent me."

10.
He had spoken of judgment; He means to speak of testimony. "In
your law," saith He, "it is written that the testimony of two
men is true. I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that
sent me beareth witness of me." He expounded the law to them also,
if they were not unthankful. For it is a great question, my brethren, and
to me it certainly appears to have been ordained in a mystery, where God
said, "In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall stand."(2)
Is truth sought by two witnesses? Clearly it is; so is the custom of mankind:
but yet it may be that even two witnesses lie. The chaste Susanna was pressed
by two false witnesses: were they not therefore false because they were
two? Do we speak of two or of three? A whole people lied against Christ.(3)
If, then, a people, consisting of a great multitude of men, was found a
false witness, how is it to be understood that "in the mouth of two
or three witnesses every word shall stand," unless it be that in this
manner the Trinity is mysteriously set forth to us, in which is perpetual
stability of truth? Dost thou wish to have a good cause? Have two or three
witnesses,--the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. In short, when Susanna, the
chaste woman and faithful wife, was pressed by two false witnesses, the
Trinity supported her in her conscience and in secret: that Trinity raised
up from secrecy one witness, Daniel, and convicted the two? Therefore,
because it is written in your law that the witness of two men is true,
receive our witness, test ye feel our judgment. "For I," saith
He, "judge not any man; but I bear witness of myself:" I defer
judgment, I defer not the witness.

11. Let us, brethren, choose for ourselves God as our judge, God as our
witness, against the tongues of men, against the weak suspicions of mankind.
For He who is the judge disdains not to be witness, nor is He advanced
in honor when He becomes judge; since He who is witness will also Himself
be judge. In what way is He witness? Because He asks not another to learn
from Him who thou art. In what way is He judge? Because He has the power
of killing and making alive, of condemning and acquitting, of casting down
into hell and of raising up into heaven, of joining to the devil and of
crowning with the angels. Since, therefore, He has this power, He is judge.
Now, because He requires not another witness that He may know thee; and
that He who will hereafter judge thee is now seeing thee, there is no means
whereby thou canst deceive Him when He begins to judge. For there is no
furnishing thyself with false witnesses who can circumvent that judge when
He shall begin to judge thee. This is what God says to thee: When thou
despisedst, I did see it; and when thou believedst not, I did not frustrate
my sentence. I delayed it, not removed it. Thou wouldst not hear what I
enjoined, thou shall feel what I foretold. But if thou hearest what I enjoined,
thou shall not feel the evils which I have foretold, but thou shall enjoy
the good things which I have promised.

12.
Let it not by any means surprise any one that He says, "My judgment
is true; because I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me;" whilst
He has said in another place, "The Father judgeth not any man, but
all judgment hath He given to the Son." We have already discoursed
on these same words of the evangelist, and we remind you now that this
was not said because the Father will not be with the Son when He comes
to judge, but because the Son alone will be apparent to the good and the
bad in the judgment, in that form in which He suffered, and rose again,
and ascended into heaven. For at that moment, indeed, as they were beholding
Him ascending, the angelic voice sounded in the ears of His disciples, "So
shah He come in like manner as ye have seen Him going into heaven;"(1)
that is, in the form of man in which He was judged, will He judge, in order
that also that prophetic utterance may be fulfilled, "They shall look
upon Him whom they pierced."(2) But when the righteous go into eternal
life, we shall see Him as He is; that will not be the judgment of the living
and the dead, but only the reward of the living.

13.
Likewise, let it not surprise you that He says, "In your law
it is written that the testimony of two men is true," that any man
should hence suppose that this was not also the law of God, because it
is not said, In the law of God: let him know that, when it is said thus,
In your law, it is just as if He said, "In the law which was given
to you;" given by whom, except by God? Just as we say, "Our daily
bread;" and yet we say, "Give us this day."

TRACTATE XXXVII.

CHAPTER VIII. 19, 20.

1.
What in the holy Gospel is spoken briefly ought not briefly to be expounded,
so that what
is
read may he understood. The words of the Lord are few,
but great; to be valued not by number, but by weight: not to be despised
because they are few, but to be sought because they are great. You who
were present yesterday have heard, as we discoursed according to our ability
from that which the Lord said, "Ye judge after the flesh: I judge
not any man. But yet if I judge, my judgment is true; because I am not
alone, but I and the Father that sent me. It is written in your law, that
the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of myself,
and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me." Yesterday, as
I have said, from these words a discourse was delivered to your ears and
to your minds. When the Lord had spoken these words, they who heard," Ye
judge after the flesh," manifested the truth of what they had heard.
For they answered the Lord, as He spoke of God His Father, and said to
Him, "Where is thy Father?" The Father of Christ they understood
carnally, because they judged the words of Christ after the flesh. But
He who spoke was openly flesh, but secretly the Word: man visible, God
hidden. They saw the covering, and despised the wearer: they despised because
they knew not; knew not, because they saw not; saw not, because they were
blind; they were blind, because they believed not.

2.
Let us see, then, what answer the Lord made to this. "Where," say
they, "is thy Father ?" For we have heard thee say, "I am
not alone, but I and the Father that sent me:" we see thee alone,
we do not see thy Father with thee; how sayest thou that thou art not alone,
but that thou art with thy Father? Else show us that thy Father is with
thee. And the Lord answered them: Do ye know me, that I should show you
the Father? This is indeed what follows; this is what He answered in His
own words, the exposition of which we have already premised. For see what
He said, "Ye neither know me nor my Father: if ye knew me, ye would
perhaps know my Father also." Ye say then, "Where is thy Father?" As
if already ye knew me; as if what you see were all that I am. Therefore
because ye know not me, I do not show you my Father. Ye suppose me, in
fact, to be a man; hence ye seek a man for my father, because "ye
judge after the flesh." But because, according to what you see, I
am one thing, and another thing according to what you see not, and that
I as hidden from you speak of my Father as hidden, it is requisite that
you should first know me, and then ye know my Father also.

3. "For if ye knew me, ye would perhaps know my Father also." He
who knows all things is not in doubt when He says perhaps, but rebuking.
Now see how this very word perhaps, which seems to be a word of doubting,
may he spoken chidingly. Yea, a word expressive of doubt it is when used
by man, for man doubts because he knows not; but when a word of doubting
is spoken by God, from whom surely nothing is hid, it is unbelief that
is reproved by that doubting, not the Godhead merely expressing an opinion.
For men sometimes chidingly express doubt concerning things which they
hold certain; that is, use a word of doubting, while in their heart they
doubt not: just as thou wouldst say to thy slave, if thou weft angry with
him, "Thou despisest me; but consider, perhaps I am thy master." Hence
also the apostle, speaking to some who despised him, says: "And I
think that I also have the Spirit of God."(1) When he says, "I
think," he seems to doubt; but he is rebuking, not doubting. And in
another place the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, rebuking the future unbelief
of mankind, saith: "When the Son of man cometh, will He, thinkest
thou, find faith on the earth?"(2)

4.
You now, as I think, understand how the word perhaps is used here, in
case any weigher of
words and poiser
of syllables, as if to show his
knowledge of Latin, finds fault with a word which the Word of God spoke;
and by blaming the Word of God, remain not eloquent, but mute. For who
is there that speaks as doth the Word which was in the beginning with God?
Do not consider these words as we use them, and from these wish to measure
that Word which is God. Thou hearest the Word indeed, and despisest it;
hear God and fear Him: "In the beginning was the Word." Thou
referrest to the usage of thy conversation, and sayest within thyself,
What is a word? What mighty thing is a word? It sounds and passes away;
after beating the air, it strikes the ear and is no more. Hear further: "The
Word was with God;" remained, did not by sounding pass away. Perhaps
thou still despisest it: "The Word was God." With thyself, O
man, a word in thy heart is a different thing from sound; but the word
that is with thee, in order to pass to me, requires sound for a vehicle
as it were. It takes to itself sound, mounts it as a vehicle, runs through
the air, comes to me and yet does not leave thee. But the sound, in order
to come to me, left thee and yet did not stay with me. Now has the word
that was in thy heart also passed away with the passing sound? Thou didst
speak thy thought; and, that the thought which was hid with thee might
come to me, thou didst sound syllables; the sound of the syllables conveyed
thy thought to my ear; through my ear thy thought descended into my heart,
the intermediate sound flew away: but that word which took to itself sound
was with thee before thou didst sound it, and is with me, because thou
didst sound it, without quitting thee. Consider this, thou nice weigher
of sounds, whoever thou be. Thou despisest the Word of God, thou who comprehendest
not the word of man.

5.
He, then, by whom all things were made knows all things. and yet He rebukes
by doubting: "If ye knew me ye would perhaps know my Father
also." He rebukes unbelievers. He spoke a like sentence to the disciples,
but there is not a word of doubting in it, because there was no occasion
to rebuke unbelief. For this, "If ye knew me, ye would perhaps know
my Father also," which He said to the Jews, He said also to the disciples,
when Philip asked, or rather, demanded of Him, saying, "Lord, show
us the Father, and it sufficeth us:" just as if he said, We already
know Thee even ourselves; Thou hast been apparent to us; we have seen Thee;
Thou hast deigned to choose us; we have followed Thee, have seen Thy marvels,
heard Thy words of Salvation, have taken Thy precepts upon us, we hope
in Thy promises: Thou hast deigned to confer much upon us by Thy very presence:
but still, while we know Thee, and we do not yet know the Father, we are
inflamed with desire to see Him whom we do not yet know; and thus, because
we know Thee, but it is not enough until we know the Father, show us the
Father and it sufficeth us. And the Lord, that they might understand that
they knew not what they thought they did already know, said, "Am I
so long time with you, and ye know me not, Philip? he who hath seen me
hath seen the Father."(1) Has this sentence a word of doubting in
it? Did He say, He that hath seen me hath perhaps seen the Father? Why
not? Because it was a believer that listened to Him, not a persecutor of
the faith: hence did the Lord not rebuke, but teach. "Whoso hath seen
me hath seen the Father also:" and here, "If ye knew me, ye would
know my Father also," let us remove the word which indicates the unbelief
of the hearers, and it is the same sentence.

6.
Yesterday we commended it to your consideration, beloved, and said that
the sentences of the
Evangelist
John, in which he narrates to us what
he learned from the Lord, had not required to be discussed, were that possible,
except the inventions of heretics had compelled us. Yesterday, then, we
briefly intimated to you, beloved, that there are heretics who are called
Patripassians, or Sabellians after their founder: these say that the same
is the Father who is the Son; the names different, but the person one.
When He wills, say they, He is Father; when He wills, He is Son: still
He is one. There are likewise other heretics who are called Arians. They
indeed confess that our Lord Jesus Christ is the only Son of the Father;
the one, Father of the Son; the other, Son of the Father; that He who is
Father is not Son, nor He who is Son is Father; they confess that the Son
was begotten, but deny His equality. We, namely, the catholic faith, coming
from the doctrine of the apostles planted in us, received by a line of
succession, to be transmitted sound to posterity,--the catholic faith,
I say, has, between both those parties, that is, between both errors, held
the truth. In the error of the Sabellians, He is only one; the Father and
Son is the same person: in the error of the Arians, the Father and the
Son are indeed different persons; but the Son is not only a different person,
but different in nature. Thou midway between these, what sayest thou? Thou
hast shut out the Sabellian, shut out the Arian also. The Father is Father,
the Son is Son; another person, not another in nature; for, "I and
the Father are one," which, so far as I could, I pressed on your thoughts
yesterday. When he hears that word, we are, let the Sabellian go away confounded;
when he hears the word one, let the Arian go away confounded. Let the catholic
steer the bark of his faith between both, since in both he must be on his
guard against shipwreck. Say thou, then, what the Gospel saith, "I
and the Father are one." Not different in nature, because one; not
one person, because are.

7.
A little before He said, "My judgment is true; because I am not
alone, but I and the Father that sent me:" as if He said, The reason
why my judgment is true is, because I am the Son of God, because I speak
the truth, because I am truth itself. Those men, understanding Him carnally,
said, "Where is thy Father?" Now hear, O Arian: "Ye neither
know me, nor my Father;" because, "If ye knew me, ye would know
my Father also." What doth this mean, except "I and the Father
are one"? When thou seest some person like some other,--give heed,
beloved, it is a common remark; let not that appear to you difficult which
you see to be customary,--when, I say, thou seest some person like another,
and thou knowest the person to whom he is like, thou sayest in wonder, "How
like this person is to that!" Thou wouldst not say this unless there
were two. Here one who does not know the person to whom thou sayest the
other is like remarks, "Is he so like him?" And thou answerest
him: What? dost thou not know that person? Saith he, "No, I do not." Immediately
thou, in order to make known to him the person whom he does not know by
means of the person whom he observes before him, answerest, saying, Having
seen this man, thou hast seen the other. Thou didst not, surely, assert
that they are one person in saying this, or that they are not two; but
made such answer because of the likeness: "If thou knowest the one,
thou knowest the other; for they are very like, and there is no difference
whatever between them." Hence also the Lord saith, "If ye knew
me, ye would know my Father also;" not that the Son is the Father
but like the Father. Let the Arian blush. Thanks be to the Lord that even
the Arian is separate from the Sabellian error, and is not a Patripassian:
he does not affirm that the Father assumed flesh and came to men, that
the Father suffered, rose again, and somehow ascended to Himself; this
he does not affirm; he acknowledges with me the Father to be Father, the
Son to be Son. But, O brother, thou hast escaped that shipwreck, why go
to the other? Father is Father, Son is Son; why dost thou affirm that the
Son is unlike, that He is different, another substance? If He were unlike,
would He say to His disciples, "He that hath seen me hath seen the
Father"? Would He say to the Jews, "If ye knew me, ye would know
my Father also"? How would this be true, unless that other was also
true, "I and the Father are one"?

8. "These words spake Jesus in the treasury, speaking in the temple:" great
boldness, without fear. For He could not suffer if He did not will it,
since He were not born if He did not will it. What follows then? "And
no man laid hold of Him, because His hour was not yet come." Some,
again, when they hear this, believe that the Lord Christ was subject to
fate, and say: Behold, Christ is held by fate! O, if thy heart were not
fatuous, thou would st not believe in fate. If fate, as some understand
it, is derived from fando, that is from speaking, how can the Word of God
be held by fate, whilst all things that are made are in the Word itself?
For God has not ordained anything which He did not know beforehand; that
which was made was in His Word. The world was made; both was made and was
there. How both was made and was there? Because the house which the builder
rears, was previously in his art; and there, a better house, without age,
without decay: however, to show forth his art, he makes a house; and so,
in a manner, a house comes forth from a house; and if the house should
fall, the art remains. So were all things that are made with the Word of
God; because God made all things in wisdom,(1) and all that He made were
known to Him: for He did not learn because He made, but made because He
knew. To us they are known, because they are made: to Him, if they had
not been known, they would not have been made Therefore the Word went before.
And what was before the Word? Nothing at all For were there anything before
it, it would not have been said, "In the beginning was the Word;" but,
In the beginning was the Word made. In short, what says Moses concerning
the world? "In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth." Made
what was not: well, if He made what was not, what was there before? "In
the beginning was the Word." And whence came heaven and earth? "All
things were made by Him." Dost thou then put Christ under fate? Where
are the fates? In heaven, sayest thou, in the order and changes of the
stars. How then can fate rule Him by whom the heavens and the stars were
made; whilst thy own will, if thou thinkest rightly, transcends even the
stars? Or, because thou knowest that Christ's flesh was under heaven, is
that the reason why thou thinkest that Christ's power was put under the
heavens?

9.
Hear, thou fool: "His hour was not yet come;" not the hour
in which He should be forced to die, but that in which He would deign to
be put to death. For Himself knew when He should die: He considered all
things that were foretold of Him, and awaited all to be finished that was
foretold to be before His suffering; that when all should be fulfilled,
then should come His suffering in set order, not by fatal necessity. In
short, hear that yon may prove. Among the rest that was prophesied of Him,
it is also written: "They gave me gall for meat, and in my thirst
they gave me vinegar to drink."(2) How this happened, we know from
the Gospel. First, they gave Him gall; He received it, tasted it, and spat
it out. Thereafter, as He hung on the cross, that all that was foretold
might be fulfilled, He said, "I thirst." They took a sponge filled
with vinegar, bound it to a reed, and put it to His mouth; He received
it, and said, "It is finished." What did that mean? All things
which were prophesied before my death are completed, then what do I here
any longer? In a word, when He said "It is finished, He bowed His
head, and gave up the ghost." Did the thieves, who were nailed beside
Him, expire when they would? They were held by the bonds of flesh, for
they were not the creators of the flesh; fixed by nails, they were a long
time tormented, because they had not lordship over their weakness. The
Lord, however, when He would, took flesh in a virgin's womb: came forth
to men when He would; lived among men so long as He would; and when He
would He quilted the flesh. This is the part of power, not of necessity.
This hour, then, He awaited; not the fated, but the fitting and voluntary
hour; that all might first be fulfilled which behoved to be fulfilled before
His decease. How could he have been under necessity of fate, when He said
in another place, "I have power to lay down my life, and I have power
lo take it again: no man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself
and take it again?"(3) He showed this power when the Jews sought Him. "Whom
seek ye?" saith He. "Jesus," said they. And He answered," I
am He." When they heard this voice, "they went back and fell
to the ground."(4)

10.
Says one, If he had this power, why, when the Jews insulted him on the
cross and said, "If he be the Son of God let him come down from
the cross," did he not come down, to show them his power by coming
down? Because He was teaching us patience, therefore He deferred the demonstration
of His power. For if He came down, moved as it were at their words, He
would be thought to have been overcome by the sting of their insults. He
did not come down; there He remained fixed, to depart when He would. For
what great matter was it for Him to descend from the cross, when He could
rise again from the sepulchre? Let us, then, to whom this is ministered,
understand that the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, then concealed, will
be made manifest in the judgment, of which it is said, "God will come
manifest; our God, and He will not be silent."(1) Why is it said, "will
come manifest"? Because He, our God,--namely, Christ,--came hidden,
will come manifest. "And will not be silent:" why this "will
not be silent"? Because at first He did keep silence. When? When He
was judged; that this, too, might be fulfilled which the prophet had foretold: "As
a sheep He was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before his shearer is
dumb, so He opened not His mouth."(2) He would not have suffered did
He not will to suffer: did He not suffer, that blood had not been shed;
if that blood were not shed, the world would not be redeemed. Therefore
let us give thanks to the power of His divinity, and to the compassion
of His infirmity; both concerning the hidden power which the Jews did not
recognize, whence it is now said to them, "Ye neither know me nor
my Father," and also concerning the flesh assumed, which the Jews
did not recognize, and yet knew His lineage: whence He said to them elsewhere, "Ye
both know me, and ye know whence I am." Let us know both in Christ,
both wherein He is equal to the Father and wherein the Father is greater
than He. That is the Word, this is the flesh; that is God, this is man;
but yet Christ is one, God and man.

TRACTATE XXXVIII.

CHAPTER VIII. 21-25.

1.
The lesson of the holy Gospel which preceded to-day's had concluded thus:
that "the Lord spake, teaching in the treasury," what it
pleased Him, and what you have heard; "and no one laid hands on Him,
for His hour was not yet come."(1) Accordingly, on the Lord's day
we made our subject of discourse what He Himself thought fit to give us.
We indicated to your Charity why it was said, "His hour was not yet
come," lest any in their impiety should have the effrontery to suspect
Christ as laid under some fatal necessity. For the hour was not yet come
when by His own appointment, in accordance with what was predicted regarding
Him, He should not be forced to die unwillingly, but be ready to be slain.

2.
But of His own passion itself, which lay not in any necessity He was
under, but in His
own power, all
that He said in His discourse to the Jews
was, "I go away." For to Christ the Lord's death was His proceeding.
to the place whence He had come, and from which He had never departed. "I
go away," said He, "and ye shall seek me," not from any
longing for me, but in hatred. For after His removal from human sight,
He was sought for both by those who hated Him and those who loved Him;
by the former in a spirit of persecution, by the latter with the desire
of having Him. In the Psalms the Lord Himself says by the prophet, "A
place of refuge hath failed me, and there is none that seeketh after my
life;"(2) and again He says in another place in the Psalms, "Let
them be confounded and ashamed who seek after my life."(3) He blamed
the former for not seeking, He condemned the latter because they did. For
it is wrong not to seek the life of Christ, that is, in the way the disciples
sought it; and it is wrong to seek the life of Christ, that is, in the
way the Jews sought it: for the former sought to possess it, these latter
to destroy it. Accordingly, because these men sought it thus in a wrong
way, with a perverted heart, what next did He add? "Ye shall seek
me, and "--not to let you suppose that ye will seek me for good--" ye
shall die in your sin." This comes of seeking Christ wrongly, to die
in one's sin; this of hating Him, through whom alone salvation could be
found. For, while men whose hope is in God ought not to render evil even
for evil, these men were rendering evil for good. The Lord therefore announced
to them beforehand, and in His foreknowledge uttered the sentence, that
they should die in their sin. And then He adds, "Whither I go, ye
cannot come." He said the same to the disciples also in another place;
and yet He said not to them, "Ye shall die in your sin." But
what did He say? The same as to these men: "Whither I go, ye cannot
come."(1) He did not take away hope, but foretold delay. For at the
time when the Lord spake this to the disciples, they were not able to come
whither He was going, yet were they to come afterwards; but these men never,
to whom in His foreknowledge He said, "Ye shall die in your sin."

3.
But on hearing these words, as is usual with those whose thoughts are
carnal, who judge
after the
flesh, and hear and apprehend everything in
a carnal way, they said, "Will he kill himself? because he said, Whither
I go ye cannot come." Foolish words, and overflowing with stupidity!
For why? could they not go whither He would have proceeded had He killed
Himself? Were not they themselves to die? What, then, means, "Will
he kill himself? because he said, Whither I go ye cannot come?" If
He spake of man's death, what man is there that does not die? Therefore,
by "whither I go" He meant, not the going to death, but whither
He was going Himself after death. Such, then, was their answer, because
they did not understand.

4.
And what said the Lord to those who savored of the earth? "And
He said unto them, Ye are from beneath." For this cause ye savor of
the earth, because ye lick dust like serpents. Ye eat earth! What does
it mean? Ye feed on earthly things, ye delight in earthly things, ye gape
after earthly things, ye have no heart for what is above. "Ye are
from beneath: I am from above. Ye are of this world: I am not of this world." For
how could He be of the world, by whom the world was made? All that are
of the world come after the world, because the world preceded; and so man
is of the world. But, Christ was first, and then the world; and since Christ
was before the world, before Christ there was nothing: because "In
the beginning was the Word; all things were made by, Him."(2) He,
therefore, was of that which is above. But of what that is above? Of the
air? Perish the thought! there the birds wing their flight. Of the sky
that we see? Again I say, Perish the thought! it is there that the stars
and sun and moon revolve. Of the angels? Neither is this to be understood:
by Him who made all things were the angels also made. Of what, then, above
is Christ? Of the Father Himself. Nothing is above that God who begat the
Word equal with Himself, co-eternal with Himself, only-begotten, timeless,
that by Him time's own foundations should be laid. Understand, then, Christ
as from above, so as in thy thought to get beyond everything that is made,--the
whole creation together, every material body, every created spirit, everything
in any way subject to change: rise above all, as John rose, in order to
reach this: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God."

5.
Therefore said He, "I am from above. Ye are of this world: I am
not of this world. I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your
sins." He bas explained to us, brethren, what He wished to be understood
by "ye are of this world." He said therefore in fact, "Ye
are of this world," because they were sinners, because they were unrighteous,
because they were unbelieving, because they savored of the earthly. For
what is your opinion as regards the holy apostles? What difference was
there between the Jews and the apostles? As great as between darkness and
light, as between faith and unbelief, as between piety and impiety, as
between hope and despair, as between love and avarice: surely the difference
was great. What then? because there was such a difference, were the apostles
not of the world? If thy thoughts turn to the manner of their birth, and
whence they came, inasmuch as all of them had come from Adam, they were
of this world. But what said the Lord Himself to them? "I have chosen
you out of the world." a Those, then, who were of the world, became
not of the world, and began to belong to Him by whom the world was made.
But these men continued to be of the world, to whom it was said, "Ye
shall die in your sins."

6.
Let none then, brethren, say, I am not of this world. Whoever thou art
as a man, thou
art of this
world; but He who made the world came to
thee, and delivered thee from this world. If the world delights thee, thou
wishest always to be unclean (immundus); but if this world no longer delight
thee, thou art already clean (mundus). And yet, if through some infirmity
the world still delight thee, let Him who cleanseth (mundat) dwell in thee,
and thou too shalt be clean.(1) But if thou art once clean, thou wilt not
continue in the world; neither wilt thou hear what was heard by the Jews, "Ye
shall die in your sins." For we are all born with sin; we have all
in living added to that wherein we were born, and have since become more
of the world than when we were born of our parents. And where should we
be, had He not come, who was wholly free from sin, to expiate all sin?
And so, because in Him the Jews believed not, they deservedly heard [the
sentence], "Ye shall die in your sins;" for in no way could ye,
who were born with sin, be without sin; and yet, said He, if ye believe
in me, although it is still true that ye were born with sin, yet in your
sin ye shall not die. The whole misery, then, of the Jews was just this,
not to have sin, but to die in their sins. From this it is that every Christian
ought to seek to escape; because of this we have recourse to baptism; on
this account do those whose lives are in danger from sickness or any other
cause become anxious for help; for this also is the sucking child carried
by his mother with pious hands to the church, that he may not go out into
the world without baptism, and die in the sin wherein he was born. Most
wretched surely the condition and miserable the lot of these men, who heard
from those truth-speaking lips," Ye shall die in your sins!"

7.
But He explains whence this should befall them: "For if ye believe
not that I am [He], ye shall die in your sins." I believe, brethren,
that among the multitude who listened to the Lord, there were those also
who should yet believe. But against all, as it were, had that most severe
sentence gone forth, "Ye shall die in your sin;" and thereby
even from those who should yet believe had hope been withdrawn: the others
were roused to fury, they to fear; yea, to more than fear, they were brought
now to despair. But He revived their hope; for He added, "If ye believe
not that I am, ye shall die in your sins." Therefore if ye do believe
that I am, ye shall not die in your sins. Hope was restored to the desponding,
the sleeping were: aroused, their hearts got a fresh awakening; and thereafter
very many believed, as the Gospel itself attests in the sequel. For members
of Christ were there, who had not yet become attached to the body of Christ;
and among that people by whom He was crucified, by whom He was hanged on
a tree, by whom when hanging He was mocked, by whom He was wounded with
the spear, by whom gall and vinegar were given Him to drink, were the members
of Christ, for whose sake He said, "Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do." And what will a convert not be forgiven, if
the shedding of Christ's blood is forgiven? What murderer need despair,
if he was restored to hope by whom even Christ was slain? After this many
believed; they were presented with Christ's blood as a gift, that they
might drink it for their salvation, rather than be held guilty of shedding
it. Who can despair? And if the thief was saved on the cross,--a murderer
shortly before, a little afterwards accused, convicted, condemned, hanged,
delivered,-wonder not. The place of his conviction was that of his condemnation;
while that of his conversion was the place also of his deliverance.(2)
Among this people, then, to whom the Lord was speaking, were those who
should yet die in their sin: there were those also who should yet believe
on Him who spake, and find deliverance from all their sin.

8.
But look at this which is said by Christ the Lord: "If ye believe
not that I am, ye shall die in your sins." What is this, "If
ye believe not that I am?" "I am" what? There is nothing
added; and because He added nothing, He left much to be inferred. For He
was expected to say what He was, and yet He said it not. What was He expected
to say? Perhaps, "If ye believe not that I am" Christ; "if
ye believe not that I am" the Son of God; "if ye believe not
that I am" the Word of the Father: "if ye believe not that I
am" the founder of the world; "if ye believe not that I am" the
former and re-former, the creator and re-creator, the maker and re-maker
of man;--" if ye believe not that I am" this, "ye shall
die in your sins." There is much implied in His only saying "I
am;" for so also had God said to Moses, "I am who am." Who
can adequately express what that AM means? God by His angel sent His servant
Moses to deliver His people out of Egypt (you have read and know what you
now hear; but I recall it to your minds); He sent him trembling, self-excusing,
but obedient. And while thus excusing himself, he said to God, whom he
understood to be speaking in the person of the angel: If the people say
to me, And who is the God that hath sent thee? what shall I say to them?
And the Lord answered him, "I am who am;" and added, "Thou
shalt say to the children of Israel, He who is hath sent me to you." There
also He says not, I am God; or, I am the framer of the world; or, I am
the creator of all things; or, I am the multiplier of the very people to
be delivered: but only this, "I am who am;" and, "Thou shall
say to the children of Israel, He who is." He added not, Who is your
God, who is the God of your fathers; but said only this: "He who is
hath sent me to you." Perhaps it was too much even for Moses himself,
as it is too much for us also, and much more so for us, to understand the
meaning of such words, "I am who am;" and, "He who is hath
sent me to you." And supposing that Moses comprehended it, when would
those to whom he was sent comprehend it? The Lord therefore put aside what
man could not comprehend, and added what he could; for He said also besides, "I
am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."(1)
This thou canst comprehend; for "I am who am," what mind can
comprehend?

9.
What then of us? Shall we venture to say anything on such words, "I
am who am;" or rather on this, that you have heard the Lord saying, "If
ye believe not that I am, ye shall die in your sins"? Shall I venture
with these feeble and scarcely existing powers of mine to discuss the meaning
of that which Christ the Lord hath said, "If ye believe not that I
am"? I shall venture to ask the Lord Himself. Listen to me as one
asking rather than discussing, inquiring rather than assuming, learning
rather than teaching, and fail not yourselves also to be asking with me
or through me. The Lord Himself, who is everywhere, is also at hand. Let
Him hear the feeling that prompts to ask, and grant the fruit of understanding.
For in what words, even were it so that I comprehend something, can i convey
to your hearts what I comprehend? What voice is adequate? what eloquence
sufficient? what powers of intelligence? what faculty of utterance?

10.
I shall speak, then, to our Lord Jesus Christ; I shall speak and may
He be pleased to
hear me.
I believe He is present, I am fully assured of
it; for He Himself has said, "Lo, I am with you even to the end of
the world."(2) O Lord our God, what is that which Thou saidst, "If
ye believe not that I am"? For what is there that belongs not to the
things Thou hast made? Does not heaven so belong? Does not the earth? Does
not everything in earth and heaven? Does not man himself to whom Thou speakest?
Does not the angel whom Thou sendest? If all these are things made by Thee,
what is that existence(3) Thou hast retained as something exclusively Thine
own, which Thou hast given to none besides, that Thou mightest be such
Thyself alone? For how do I hear "I am who am," as if there were
none besides? and how do I hear "If ye believe not that I am"?
For had they no existence who heard Him? Yea, though they were sinners,
they were men. What then can I do? What that existence is, let Him tell
my heart, let Him tell, let Him declare it within; let the inner man hear,
the mind apprehend this true existence; for such existence is always unvarying
in character.(4) For a thing, anything whatever (I have begun as it were
to dispute, and have left off inquiring. Perhaps I wish to speak what I
have heard. May He grant enlargement to my hearing, and to yours, while
I speak);--for anything, whatever in short be its excellence, if it is
changeable, does not truly exist; for there is no true existence wherever
non-existence has also a place. For whatever can be changed, so far as
changed, it is not that which was: if it is no longer what it was, a kind
of death has therein taken place; something that was there has been eliminated,
and exists no more. Blackness has died out in the silvery locks of the
patriarch, comeliness in the body of the careworn and crooked old man,
strength in the body of the languishing, the [previous] standing posture
in the body of one walking, walking in the body of one standing, walking
and standing in the body of one reclining, speech in the tongue of the
silent;--whatever changes, and is what it was not, I see there a kind of
life in that which is, and death in that which was. In fine, when we say
of one deceased, Where is that person? we are answered, He was O Truth,
it is thou [alone] that truly art! For in all actions and movements of
ours, yea, in every activity of the creature, I find two times, the past
and the future. I seek for the present, nothing stands still: what I have
said is no longer present; what I am going to say is not yet come: what
I have done is no longer present; what I am going to do is not yet come:
the life I have lived is no longer present; the life I have still to live
is not yet come. Past and future I find in every creature-movement: in
truth, which is abiding, past and future I find not, but the present alone,
and that unchangeably, which has no place in the creature. Sift the mutations
of things, thou wilt find was and WILL BE: think on God, thou wilt find
the is, where was and WILL BE cannot exist. To be so then thyself, rise
beyond the boundaries of time. But who can transcend the powers of his
being? May He raise us thither who said to the Father, "I will that
they also be with me where I am." And so, in making this promise,
that we should not die in our sins, the Lord Jesus Christ, I think, said
nothing else by these words, "If ye believe not that I am;" yea,
by these words I think He meant nothing else than this, "If ye believe
not that I am" God, "ye shall die in your sins." Well, God
be thanked that He said, "If ye believe not," and did not say,
If ye comprehend not. For who can comprehend this? Or is it so, since I
have ventured to speak and you have seemed to understand, that you have
indeed comprehended somewhat of a subject so unspeakable? If then thou
comprehendest not, faith sets thee free. Therefore also the Lord said not,
If ye comprehend not that I am; but said what they were capable of attaining, "If
ye believe not that I am, ye shall die in your sins."

11.
And savoring as these men always did of the earth, and ever hearing and
answering according
to
the flesh, what did they say to Him? "Who
art thou?" For when thou saidst, "If ye believe not that I am," thou
didst not tell us what thou wert. Who art thou, that we may believe? He
answered "The Beginning." Here is the existence that [always]
is. The beginning cannot be changed: the beginning is self-abiding and
all-originating; that is, the beginning, to which it has been said, "But
thou Thyself art the same, and Thy years shall not fail."(1) "The
beginning," He said, "for so I also speak to you." Believe
me [to be] the beginning, that ye may not die in your sins. For just as
if by saying, "Who art thou?" they had said nothing else than
this, What shall we believe thee to be? He replied, "The beginning;" that
is, Believe me [to be] the "beginning." For in the Greek expression
we discern what we cannot in the Latin. For in Greek the word "beginning" (principium, <greek>arkh</greek>),
is of the feminine gender, just as with us "law" (lex) is of
the feminine gender, while it is of the masculine (<greek>nomos</greek>)
with them; or as "wisdom" (sapientia, <greek>sofia</greek>)
is of the feminine gender with both. It is the custom of speech, therefore,
in different languages to vary the gender of words, because in things themselves
there is no place for the distinction of sex. For wisdom is not really
female, since Christ is the Wisdom of God,(2) and Christ is termed of the
masculine gender, wisdom of the feminine. When then the Jews said, "Who
art thou?" He, who knew that there were some there who should yet
believe, and therefore had said, Who art thou? that so they might come
to know what they ought to believe regarding Him, replied, "The beginning:" not
as if He said, I am the beginning; but as if He said, Believe me [to he]
the beginning. Which, as I said, is quite evident in the Greek language,
where beginning (<greek>arkh</greek>) is of the feminine gender.(3)
Just as if He had wished to say that He was the Truth, and to their question, "Who
art thou?" had answered, Veritatem(4) [the Truth]; when to the words, "Who
art thou?" He evidently ought to have replied, Veritas(5) [the Truth];
that is, I am the Truth. But His answer had a deeper meaning, when He saw
that they had put the question, "Who art thou?" in such a way
as to mean, Having heard from thee, "If ye believe not that I am,
what shall we believe thee to be? To this He replied, "The beginning:" as
if He said, Believe me to be the beginning. And He added "for [as
such] I also speak to you;" that is, having humbled myself on your
account, I have condescended to such words. For if the beginning as it
is in itself had remained so with the Father, as not to receive the form
of a servant and speak as man with men; how could they have believed in
Him, since their weak hearts could not have heard the Word intelligently
without some voice that would appeal to their senses? Therefore, said He,
believe me to be the beginning; for, that you may believe, I not only am,
but also speak to you.(6) But on this subject I have still much to say
to you; may it therefore please your Charity that we reserve what remains,
and by His gracious aid deliver it tomorrow.